Visual Studio Express Edition Free Permanently
Microsoft: 10. How much will these products cost?
Effective April 19th, 2006, all Visual Studio 2005 Express Editions are free permanently. This pricing covers all Visual Studio 2005 Express Editions including Visual Basic, Visual C#, Visual C++, Visual J#, and Visual Web Developer as well as all localized versions of Visual Studio Express.
SQL Server 2005 Express Edition has always been and will continue to be a free download.
Also, according to Microsoft's Coding4Fun web site, in the five months since its launch, Express has been downloaded over 5 million times. That includes the three downloads from me.