Visual Studio has always featured tight integration with SQL Server. Microsoft
continues this trend by offering no less than three different editions of SQL
Server 2005 with Visual Studio 2008. First, both the Visual Studio 2008
Professional and Standard editions include new support for the SQL Server
Compact Edition 3.5. Designed primarily for mobile applications, the SQL
Server Compact Edition is a lightweight (approximately 1.8 MB) full-featured
in-process relational database. The SQL Server Compact Edition can be freely
distributed with your applications.
In addition, like the earlier Visual Studio 2005 release, both the Visual
Studio 2008 Professional and Standard editions include the SQL Server 2005
Express edition as an optionally installed component. Like the full blown version
of SQL Server, SQL Server Express runs as a background service and is
suitable for use as a single user or multi-user relational database applications.
SQL Server 2005 Express Edition can also be freely distributed.
Finally, customers who purchase the Visual Studio 2008 Professional
edition also get a copy of the SQL Server 2005 Developer’s Edition. The
SQL Server 2005 Developer’s edition has all the features that are in the SQL
Server 2005 Enterprise edition, but the Developer edition is restricted to use
in development-only scenarios and can’t be used as a production database.