Microsoft To Build Out Visual Studio Languages, SQL Server Line For 'Enthusiasts'

The company will formally announce plans for SQL Server Express Edition, Visual Web Developer 2005 Express Edition, Visual Basic 2005 Express Edition, Visual C# 2005 Express Edition, and Visual J# Express Edition at Tech Ed Europe this week in Amsterdam, executives said.

"We needed to expand the product lines to target the hobbyist, enthusiast and student a lot better," said John Montgomery, director of marketing for developer tools. He said the population of non-professional developers at 18 million dwarves that of their professional counterparts (about six million.)

Timing for delivery is not set. Microsoft still hopes to get beta 1 of the full Visual Studio 2005 tool suite and beta 2 of SQL Server 2005 out this week to meet its latest deadline. Microsoft has promised both betas for the first half of 2004. The status of both betas remains day to day according to Montgomery and Tom Rizzo, director of SQL Server product development. (For more on Yukon.)

Editor's note: Beta one for Whidbey/Visual Studio 2005 became available to MSDN subscribers as of early Tuesday morning.

SQL Server Express Edition, a replacement SKU for MSDE or Microsoft SQL Server Desktop Engine, will be a free download and bundled with the full toolset and database. The target market for Express or MSDE is the embedded market. The various language Express editions will cost in the "tens of dollars," Montgomery said.

The pint-size database will include support for the long-touted Common Language Runtime (CLR) and will support XML web services, Rizzo said. It does strip out other functionality such as the planned business intelligence perks that will be part and parcel of the full SQL Server 2005, aka Yukon, Rizzo said.

The company has also simplified packaging. The smaller database is limited for use on single processor machines with up to one gigabyte of memory. Database size is limited to four gigabytes. The delineation between MSDE and the current SQL Server is less straightforward, Rizzo acknowledged. For the current version a "workload governor" regulated how many SQL statements could be sent to the database. "If you sent five or more SQL statements, we started slowing them down. It was hard to really understand what the limit is," Rizzo said.

Microsoft appears to be on something of a push in the education market. Earlier this year, CRN reported that Microsoft is starting a less expensive version of MSDN for high school students (see story.)

Some observers say Microsoft must do more to up the "cool" quotient of Windows and related technologies to students many of whom are gravitating towards Linux and open-source software alternatives.

The Express idea is a great move, said Richard Warren, president of Shenandoah Technologies, a Winchester, Virg. consultancy.

"Budding developers at the start of their careers [represent] an incredibly important audience. This provides a workable alternative to Linux in the school house. Microsoft needs to attract and keep the next-generation devotees."

This story was updated with solution provider reaction.