I find from the FAQ section of the Microsoft Visual Studio Express 
Edition website that each will indeed be sold at US$49 once
formally released.

Still I did not see any mentioning of the beta testing period so 
hopefully there are no time limit. It is meant for the beginners,
students, hobbyists. Perfect for me. For professionals who need
MFC/ATL/ActiveX then the full version is necessary.

As a test drive, I downloaded some VB.NET and C# USB codes from Lakeview
Research and they are actually working.

Another thing is that Microsoft is really correct to say that they
are small (<50MB) since the 516MB has the .NET 2 Beta, MSDN
Express (big) and SQL Express. The VB/VC/C#/J# portion are less than
50MB.

Regards,
Xiaofan

-----Original Message-----
From: WH Tan [mailto:tanwh@notes.src.global.sharp.co.jp]
Sent: Thursday, July 14, 2005 11:47 AM

It's a strip down version of the full version and it's available for public
download. Microsoft recent public realase not including an IDE. Hoever this
time around, it includes an IDE! I think the major difference is it has no
MFC library support. Apart some optimizations are not available in express
edition.

Where did you hear about that? It can't produce a standalone application?
Well I think you have to register (or Microcost sometime refers it as
activate) it. If not it will only work for 30 days. I think there is no time
limit after you register it. I also believe there will be an official
express edition for public download once it is really!

>From Microsoft web site:
- Small download makes it easy to get started

I'm doubt over the last comment anyway. 516MB is considered small download?
Never mind it's free anyway ;)

Best regards,
WH Tan
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