Microsoft has released SQL Server 2012 Release Candidate 0. There are many new features, including: AlwaysOn, better performance management, more reporting and visualization tools, Columnstore index, and FileTables. The product will come in 3 main editions: Standard, Business Intelligence and Enterprise.
LocalDB is a new version of SQL Express that offers many of the same features, but installs faster, has fewer prerequisites, and doesn’t require management of a database instance. It supports T-SQL, and uses the same client-side providers as other versions of SQL Server, but runs in-process, rather than as a service.
A new build of Service Pack 1 for SQL Server 2008 Express has enabled some support for .NET 4.0. But with a large list of limitations one has to wonder what’s the point.
Microsoft has released significant updates for SQL Server 2008, including 2008 Service Pack 1, Express Edition Service Pack 1, large Feature Pack, Upgrade Advisor, SRS Report Builder 2.0, SharePoint integration, and data mining Office add-ins.
Microsoft has made available three versions of SQL Server 2008 Express. Express editions are free versions of SQL Server intended for learning or building small server applications, or for ISV redistribution. The Tools edition contains the Management Studio, while the Advanced Services edition has full-text search and Reporting Services.
Along with the full version of Visual Studio Orcas in beta, the free versions that make up the Visual Studio Express line are now available.
With the release of Service Pack 2, SQL Server 2005 finally has full support on Vista. This includes SQL Server Express, which had serious difficulties running on the new operating system. Several new features are also included in this release.
SQL Server Compact Edition has been released. As we reported in September, this product is being positioned as a replaced for the venerable Jet engine traditional used by Visual Basic programmers for lightweight databases.
