Differences between 2005, 2000, and Express - documentation, whitepapers?

Can anyone point me in the direction of some NON-sales documentation on the differences between these product? I am sure, especially with Express, there are considerable functionality and architecture differences.

I've looked in BOL, and I've done searches online.

All i seem to get is sales related stuff.

I'm curious about the architecture of SQL 2005, SQL express. In 2000, there was some fairly detailed documentaiton on this subject, but 2005 BOL seems REALLY diffucult to find things.

I may just need to try different keywords...

Here is a good page for 2005: http://www.microsoft.com/sql/prodinfo/features/compare-features.mspx|||

Hello all, two questions that perhaps are related:

Is it a bad idea to use sqlexpress for systemtests if prod-environment is sql2005? I am using stored procs against tables, simple techniques. No fancy stuff like external functions, webservices or similar .

I have to use standard security with a sqluser but I get authorisation failure. Do I need to set sqlexpress to allow mixed mode? How do I do that?

Thanks in advance!

/Rasmus

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yacrumb2,

Yes, you can use SQL Express for testing; you wouldn't be able to test SQL Agent Jobs and some of the other more 'advanced' functionality. But for simple stored procedure testing, there should be no problem. However, I would recommend that your test environment closely 'match' the production environment. (Or that you use the Developer's Edition -which cost only about $50 US, and is the same as Enterprise Edition)

Any version can use SQL Authentication, just set for 'Mixed Mode' on the security tab of the Server Properties window in SSMS (or SSMSE). If you are having problems, you may wish to post the error message and how you are trying to connect so we can help you.