You get MSDE for free with VFP, but it is missing some management tools that I think are essential. You can get the Developer Edition of SQL Server for about $50 US.

In addition to the VFP docs, here are some places to get started. Some of these articles are a bit dated and talk about some technologies that are no longer used (RDS for example), but still contain some good information.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/archive/en-us/dnarfoxgen/html/msdn_bko01.asp
http://msdn.microsoft.com/archive/en-us/dnarfoxgen/html/msdn_fpsqlcs.asp
http://msdn.microsoft.com/archive/en-us/dnarfoxgen/html/msdn_bko02.asp
http://msdn.microsoft.com/archive/en-us/dnarfoxgen/html/msdn_usevfp.asp
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/dnfoxgen/html/adojump.asp
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/dnsql2k/html/sql_embeddingmsde.asp

There are some sample chapters you can download from http://www.hentzenwerke.com/catalog/csvfp.htm

>Hi all,
>
>I need all kind of information and examples on how to work with SQL databases from VFP 8.
>I have knowledge on working with DBFs only and acessing SQL databases looks very complex to me. Am I wrong?
>
>I have more than 10 years of experience on developing with VFP and I am looking for a new job. I am going to take a test on next tuesday (February, 1, 2005).
>
>Any help appreciated.
>
>Thank you.