Download Visual Studio 2005 Express Editions for Free
Looks like Microsoft will be offering the express editions of its Visual Studio 2005 products for free until november 2006.
The download is available at http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/default.aspx
There is a good feature comparison also available at http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/products/compare/
Article in spanish (my spanish blog - Mentores.NET)
The most important thing you must know about Visual 2005 Express Products (C#. VB) is that you can only connect to local datasources like Access (.mdb) and SQL Express (.mdf) files, if you want to connect to SQL Server 2k you must use the standard or professional version.
If you decided to buy any of the PRO products before you spent too much time with the scorecard, let me summarize the major differences:
Standard:
- User Experience: Streamlined
- Deployment Tools: Click Once
- Extensibility: Consume Extensions
- Reporting: SQL Server Reporting Services
- Debugging: Local
- 64-bit CPU support, Server Explorer, SQL Server 2005 integration: No
Professional:
- User Experience: Full
- Deployment Tools: Yes
- Extensibility: Full
- Reporting: SQL Server Reporting Services and Crystal Reports
- Debugging: Local and remote
- 64-bit CPU support, Server Explorer, SQL Server 2005 integration: Yes