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. ๐ 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.
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?! ๐
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! ๐