Well, it's finally here and it's damn good - SQL Server 2005. It's been a long road to get to this point with many twists and turns but in the end we made it. I'll have to create another post with all the inflection points we went through to get here but if you see me at launch, ask me about them.
On another note, my book has been published on SQL Server 2005. You can find it at this link. Give it a read, provide feedback, etc, etc. I worked with some other great authors on this book and it covers a lot of topics from installation, managing, developing, high availability, security, BI, etc.
Some folks have also asked recently about upgrade pricing for SQL Server 2005. We do not offer upgrade pricing since we moved to Software Assurance. If you bought your SQL Server 2000 licenses with Software Assurance and your contract is valid Dec 1st, 2005, you will get the rights to upgrade to SQL Server 2005. If you didn't, you will have to buy new licenses.
Go to the MSDN subscriber site, download the bits (we're posting all editions right now beyond developer!) and see you all at launch!
Tom