>>Before installing MSDE have you considered SQL Server Express 2005. Even if it's a beta version perhaps it would be better to install this instead of MSDE.
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>>I say that because there are some tools missing in MSDE that will be in SQL Server Express 2005.
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>>So in the long run SSE 2005 is probably the best way to go.
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>>I understand that perhaps you need to install MSDE because you have an app to work on and can't take the risk to use beta software for that. But if the installation you want to do is for the learning experience of SQL Server development then perhaps SSE 2005 could be good enough.
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>Thanks a lot; that seems a good alternative.
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>It is for practice only. For now, I want to practice C/S technologies in general. Even a free version of Oracle would suffice (this is an example; I don't think such a thing exists).
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>On the other hand, I see there is a lot of job market asking specifically for SQL Server.
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>Does this SQL Server Express offer the administrative tools, the interface, which - in my understanding - are missing in MSDE? I assume the limitations on the number of users, and on the total database size, are similar?

There are some limitations but overall this is a pretty interesting piece of software. If I recall correctly size for database has been increased from 2GB to 4GB and many of the administrative tools, interface... missing in MSDE are there.