Microsoft SQL Server - April CTP (aka Beta 3) Available Today - SQLTeam.com

Microsoft SQL Server - April CTP (aka Beta 3) Available Today - SQLTeam.com: "Microsoft is announcing this morning that the feature complete April Community Technology Preview (CTP) will be available for download today. They are also announcing that they are releasing this instead of Beta 3. They plan to continue to release CTP's until SQL Server 2005 ships.

Microsoft is also announcing a 'Go Live' license for the Express Edition of SQL Server 2005. If you want to put any other edition into production you'll need to join their TAP program. I can't imagine they're going to take a huge number of organizations into that program. "

Ms also announced the next betas for Visual Studio and the .NET platform on the same day.

The "Go Live" license - and it is for a free product - is big news. According to Microsoft, SQL Server 2005 Express, the next version of the venerable MSDE, is ready for production. More details on what Go-Live means is here: "This addendum (called a ‘Go-Live’ License) will permit customers to deploy applications based on these products in production environments."

Here's a recent intro article on SQL Server Express at Database Journal.