Microsoft has released SQL Server 2005 Express Technical Preview

Download SQL Server 2005 Express Technical Preview, successor to MSDE 2000. This is a Technical Preview (Pre-Beta 2) release of the product and is unsupported in production environments.

SQL Server Express is a version of SQL Server 2005 designed for building simple, dynamic applications. SQL Server Express helps developers build robust and reliable applications by providing a powerful database that is also free and easy to use. Too often database systems are overly complex for building simple applications. SQL Server Express and the other Express products reduce this complexity by providing a simple but powerful development environment for building data-driven applications. You can design schemas, add data, and query local databases, all inside the Visual Studio 2005 environment. If you need more advanced database features, then SQL Server Express can be seamlessly upgraded to more sophisticated versions of SQL Server.

SQL Server Express is the evolution of MSDE 2000 in SQL Server 2005. It is a free, easy to use, and lightweight version of SQL Server 2005.

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