At this weekend’s Maker Faire, Microsoft Corp. will display how a variety of innovative companies are using its now-free Visual Studio® 2005 Express editions to bring the power of code to the growing community of 18 million recreational and hobbyist developers. Since the launch of the Visual Studio and SQL Server™ Express editions on Nov. 7, 2005, a strong community has built up around the products and the various editions have been downloaded more than 5 million times. Much of this excitement is due in part to the diverse range of partners that have chosen to take advantage of the Visual Studio Express editions to empower a wide range of software enthusiast communities and give them the resources to customize their experiences.

Microsoft also released new learning content on the MSDN Coding4Fun Web site, providing tools and resources for the community to get up and running quickly. The Visual Studio 2005 Express editions now join the SQL Server 2005 Express editions as a no-cost offering within the Microsoft application platform.

“Software has the potential to transform everyday lives. By making the Visual Studio 2005 Express editions available free of charge, we’re putting the power of programming into the hands of an exploding community of recreational programmers,” said S. Somasegar, corporate vice president of the Developer Division at Microsoft. “This community has asked for it, and we are excited to provide it.”