Destination.NET has published a concise article by Ty Anderson introducing the features and capabilities of the free SQL Sever 2008 Express Edition. In summary:
SQL Server 2008 Express is an easy-to-use database for learning and building small server applications while also providing a seamless upgrade path. It is a solid database intended for real-world applications, and provides most of the security and manageability features available in the full version of SQL Server. The main caveat is that these features come with built-in performance limitations:
- Max CPUs Supported: 1
- Max RAM: 1 GB
- Max Database Size: 4 GB
