.NET Interoperability and SQL 2005 Express

The last two days I gave a session about .NET and COM Interoperability during the bi-monthly Software Architects and ISV Club meetings. It was quite interesting to present a session for two mostly different types of auditory. The first one were with senior management people that were not so excited about what new technologies can offer. The second meeting gathered top-notch developers, both experienced and very eager to new ideas. Since my session was prepared for such developers I did not find any problems explaining what is STA and MTA and how it affects performance in .NET interoperability scenarios. This was a daunting task for me the previous day :)

One thing that I have learned during Plamen Hristov's presentation is that SQL Server 2005 Express Edition will be FREE for download and use. You can actually xcopy deploy the database. The only requirements are that the server must have SQL Server 2005 Express Edition and you must connect to a predefined SQL instance. Just to make your day happier, there will be merge modules for SQL 2005 Express Edition. Now I think I can finally skip MS Access database as an option for small projects.