Humm....No more developer addition.  Where does that leave developers for having a cheap copy to do development work?  I haven't looked at the Express version for 2005.  Will the Express version have enough functionality for developers deploying Standard or Enterprise solutions?

Overall this looks like good news.  I am disappointed that the Report Builder is only available with Enterprise version.  We do have 4 or 5 Enterprise Edition installations now and have software assurance so we should be able to upgrade to 2005 without additional cost. 

I assume that if you are using Reporting Services on an 2005 Enterprise Edition installation that you can still run reports against databases residing on standard edition?

It's good to see there will still be a developer addition.  I just didn't see it on the posts from Microsoft on 2/24 or your article, so I was just wondering.  Any idea where  I might see as note (web page) from Microsoft about the developer addition.

A main difference of SQL Express compared to the other (non free) editions is the lack of the SQL Server Agent providing professional
job scheduling and other goodies. Example for making backup and keeping track in history records, all from within one single package.

When upgrading MSDE to SQL Express all this nice stuff is gone.
There is not easy alternative to this. There are ways to use the
Windows scheduler but ... the development, maintenance, tracing is completely different. Developers will find a new challenge to
package all this but in the end End users and Customers
(no system administrators) will not be happy at all.

You should never remove functionality from a product that
is already established well in the field. The result will be that
MSDE 2000 will still be used for several years, even for new customers.

I see no reason why you increase the 'freeware' limit from 2GB
to 4GB. If you need more than 2GB disk, you simply buy the
non-free versions, and the customer understands.

regards

Brian, thanks. Good summary. Still need to know more:

What is BAV saying about Express Edition without Agent? What about the backup job for example? OSQL with Windows Scheduler???

Abour Reports: Developer Edition 2005 Beta contains BI Development Studio. Will it continue to contain it?

Personal Edition: did not hear about this one in 2005. The advantage of Personal Edition in 2000 is that it is licensed as a client. It is a counterpart of the Standard Edition for Development. We use it a lot. Do you think it will be there in 2005?

Report Server itself: currently in 2000 is free with Standard Edition. Do you think it still will be provided with Standard?

Thanks,

Yelena