The mssql-django 2.0 release introduces support for Microsoft's new mssql-python driver alongside the existing pyodbc method. This allows users to choose their preferred driver on a per-database alias basis within Django settings. The new mssql-python driver simplifies deployment by including the necessary ODBC driver, eliminating a separate installation step. It handles various features like authentication, pooling, and datetimeoffset values. However, this driver has some differences, ignoring certain pyodbc specific options like host_is_server and MARS. Users should remain on pyodbc if they rely on named DSNs, FreeTDS, MARS, or Always Encrypted. The release updates supported versions of Python, Django, and SQL Server. Older Python and Django versions are no longer officially supported. Several bugs have been fixed, including issues with MARS settings, bracket wildcards in F() expressions, schema name quoting in inspectdb, and connecting to localhost. The dependency on pytz has been removed, switching to the standard library's zoneinfo module for timezone handling. A prerequisite for upgrading to 2.0 is the presence of a compatible mssql-python distribution on the operating system.