Microsoft Launch Event

Bunch of us from work headed downtown this morning to attend the local Microsoft Launch Tour 2005 event. First though, let me just say I am so glad I don’t make the commute downtown on a daily basis. I surely would go mad…

Anyways, the event was to tout the new versions of SQL Server 2005, Visual Studio 2005 and the beta release of BizTalk Server 2006. All products that we use to some extent or another so we were curious to see what was new. The fact that you got those all (standard editions) free for attending doesn’t hurt either.

Want “express” versions of Visual Studio and/or SQL Server? (express=free) Microsoft is offering freebies! One part of this morning’s keynote speech side-tracked into Visual Studio Express and demo’d building a website with it. Frankly, I’m pretty intrigued and have already downloaded the express version to have a look. I’ll be installing all the standard stuff on my work machine soon to look them over as well.

Random observations:

plus: SQL Server 2005 has what appears to be a very slick reporting tool built in. It demos very well and I can’t wait to play with it a bit.

minus: At no point in the keynote or individual sessions or brochures were the differences between the various products defined (like, what do I get in Enterprise edition vs. Standard edition). In fact, I’m not sure if that above-mentioned reporting tool comes with the Standard edition of SQL Server or not.
plus’ish: of course, I found some of that on the websites, but darnit… don’t make me dig when you want to sell me stuff!

plus: The new team features of Visual Studio 2005 look very slick.

minus: I got the impression that some of what was demo’d isn’t part of the core product(?) but really am a bit fuzzy.

All in all it was interesting. We bailed a bit early when it started snowing like mad. Getting caught downtown in the snow late afternoon is a very bad thing, so we talked ‘em out of our free t-shirts and dvds early and boogied out of there!

I imagine that I’ll post some other impressions as I get a chance to try out some of this stuff. I might try out the Express version of Visual Studio yet today just to see if it’ll make life easier with CSS layouts.

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