Microsoft's Express Tools

Microsoft is out to "win the hearts and minds" of new developers. They're out to build their brand, expand their name, and in the process make a bazillion dollars, and maybe, just maybe take the bite out of Linux on the desktop. Microsoft has already succeeded in giving power to non-developer crowd, by incorporating and expanding its Office suite with VBScript. They've also given power to the lowly business analyst with Access. Now, they're upping the ante. They're introducing Express versions of some of their popular and powerful development tools, and aiming them directly at casual developers, hobbyists and students. The new tools include, Visual Web Developer 2005 Express Edition -- for building web sites and services; Visual Basic 2005 Express Edition -- to help beginners learn to program; and SQL Server 2005 Express Edition. The Express products use the full blown .Net Framework, so there's hardly a functionality difference between what's developed using these tools and their heavyweight siblings. Microsoft has already signed up some powerful partners to develop starter kits for the Express too set -- eBay, PayPal and Amazon are already on board, and Microsoft is courting game development shops and consumer electronics producers. The thought here is that amateur developers will be able to use the Express tools to develop, customize and publish, their extension of popular games and devices. In the business world, some already see the Express tools energizing not only the business analyst toolkit, but also in-house development shops -- business users could potentially prototype solutions using the Express tools as part of a project's design phase, then handing it over to the development shop to port to more powerful languages and platforms, and productionize. Heck, even I might be tempted to crack my programming fingers again! Check out the article at eWeek.