Microsoft has released a 180-days trial version of Microsoft SQL Server 2008 for IT Professionals and Developers

Download SQL Server 2008 180-day Trial Software. Microsoft SQL Server 2008 is a database platform for large-scale online transaction processing (OLTP), data warehousing, and e-commerce applications; it is also a business intelligence platform for data analysis and reporting solutions.

SQL Server 2008 is a trusted, productive, and intelligent data platform for all your data needs. SQL Server 2008 delivers on Microsoft's Data Platform vision by helping your organization manage any data, any place, any time. It enables you to store structured, semi-structured, and unstructured data, such as documents, images and music, directly in the database. SQL Server 2008 delivers a rich set of integrated services that enable you to do more with your data such as query, search, synchronize, report, and analyze. Data can be stored and accessed in your largest servers within the data center all the way down to desktops and mobile devices, enabling you to have control over your data no matter where it is stored.

This fully functional trial software will automatically expire after six months. You can obtain the fully licensed version at any time.
For information about the different editions of SQL Server 2008, see the Editions page.

Trial Experience for IT Professionals
Trial Experience for Developers