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.
Dennis is an independent consultant and software architect who loves building distributed systems and the challenges they bring. What he learns he tries to share via numerous articles, blogposts, presentations and workshops.
I found it a bit confusing, the way they are free for a year isn’t very orthodox… but it all does seem logical.
They will probably throw out a new version by that time.
You think 3.0 is ready by then?! 😉
But seriously, they were thinking of a price of $49 for one VS Express edition. That’s a price hobbyists can afford. But now having it free for one year, is even better.
And from a Microsoft point of view, more and more developers will start creating small programs on a great IDE. (If it doesn’t bug.) Which means more and more people will start installing .NET 2.0.
That is what Microsoft wants. And we, as those are also our customers! 🙂