Express products free for a year!

I was a bit confused by Dan Fernandez’s post about the Microsoft Express products being free for a year. I thought they’d all be free forever. Especially SQL-Server Express (where’s the 2005 in there?) which would be the replacement for the ever free MSDE.

After first posting a comment with this question, I figured I’d search a little better in the Express FAQ. No information about SQL Express being free forever. I thought I’d go look at the pricing questions, if I could see what the product would cost after a year. There it was, the magical paragraph:

Note that we are also offering SQL Server 2005 Express Edition as a free download, and that this offer is not limited to the same promotional pricing period as Visual Studio Express.

So now you know. 🙂 Look at this post by Alex Thissen for more info on SQL-Express.
For the other Express products, they actually are free downloads for one year. Good thing is, download ‘m now, be able to use them forever.