19 Apr
2005
19 Apr
'05
5:16 a.m.
At 09:01 PM 4/18/2005, Eric Smith wrote:
When was
the last time Microsoft offered to let you just try out a copy of
Exchange Server or SQL Server for a while before you decide that you
(don't) want to use it?
Well, they do hand out 120-day and trial versions of many products,
including those. I'm surprised you've never seen them. They generally
offer these to the development and dealer communities, not the general
public, for obvious reasons - they'd be flooded.
But there are exceptions. Click here for a free Visual Studio 2005 beta:
http://lab.msdn.microsoft.com/vs2005/Default.aspx
And there are much cheaper ways to get many Microsoft products.
An MSDN subscription or an Action Pack gets you almost everything
for far less than retail. And that's not even tapping into the
OEM CD market, where everything goes at a steep discount.
- John