That's the question I've been pondering over the last couple of weeks. I wrote a SQL Server spotlight article on the new pricing and licensing for SQL Server 2005 which can be found here: http://www.microsoft.com/sql/spotlight/expandsqlserver.mspx
However, every day I get a question from customers about licensing SQL Server 2005. It's great to see the interest in the new product (and if you are buying SQL Server 2000 today, buy Software Assurance on your licenses so you get the upgrade to 2005) but I still wonder if I did a good job getting the word out on what the new feature matrix looks like and the changes we made to add more value to SQL Server 2005.
Hopefully all of you know about Reporting Services coming to all editions from Express all the way up to Enterprise Edition. Also, we are introducting passive servers at no additional charge with 2005. Many of you are used to this with passive servers in failover clustering but we did this for all passive servers such as log-shipped servers, mirrors in database mirroring, etc.
While I'm in a pondering mood, we are working on defining the next release of SQL Server 2005. I've thought about the enhancements I would like to see but of course I don't pay for the software, you do. If you want to get involved, drop me a line and let me know what you'd like to see in the next release. For those of you who don't know, we have an email alias called sqlwish (sqlwish@microsoft.com) that you can send your feature requests into as well.
Well, that's it for now. See you all at launch on November 7th.