I just today got SQL Server 2005 Trial working on SAPPHIRE. It was my first opportunity to test-drive the new system. The installer is a bit counter-intuitive, being rather different than 2000's, but other than that it has some nice features, such as explicit scans of prerequisites and other checks. The Enterprise Manager has been replaced with the SQL Server Management Studio, which definitely has a very .NET-ty feel to it, and changes the way information is presented quite a bit. It still has the plastic look-and-feel of XP, but also clearly has significantly more thrust behind it than 2000 did. Most glaring for me is the absence of DTS, which I virtually made a career out of knowing backwards and forwards. In its place stands Analysis Services, which, as far as I've read, are geared much more toward the business user than the IT user. I'm still analyzing the AS systems, but it looks like this is a dramatically different paradigm from DTS's technically straight-forward manipulation of data sources. Interestingly enough, there are now tables referring to something called a "DTS 9.0", but the help files still tell you to use Enterprise Manager to edit DTS Packages.

Also poking up from behind the new facade is a brand-new ODBC interface. It seems OLEDB is no longer supported under SQL 2005, and there's not apparent option to make it backwards compatible, meaning that any app that was trusting to connect to Microsoft SQL 2005 using the Microsoft SQL 2000 connection string will have to be maintained. Not exactly a fatal flaw, but a subtle annoyance that's sure to raise some eyebrows and slow the deployment of 2005 to legacy environments. It also means that Enterprise Manager won't like SQL 9.0, but on the plus side, the Management Studio seems more than happy to connect to older instances.

Oh well. The .NET era has been one of dramatic redesigns of products that hadn't changed much in metaphor and interface since Windows 3.1. Looks like its time for the SQL Administrators to jump on the bandwagon.