SQL Server 2005 December CTP released to betaplace and MSDN Subscriber Downloads

"Last Friday, Microsoft released the second Community Technical Preview (CTP) for SQL Server 2005. In addition to many quality and performance enhancements, this CTP will introduce 64-bit support for SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services and SQL Server 2005 Integration Services on top of the 64-bit support already included for the database engine. The SQL Server 2005 CTP is now available to all MSDN and Betaplace subscribers. "

So.... as a reminder. Beta 2 has been given lots of testing - but is several months old. The December CTP has many bug fixes and several new features BUT is given less testing. My personal recommendation at this point is to have a way to test your development against both - but aim to stick with Beta 2 until either:

- you need a feature that was added in the CTP build
- you hit show stopping problems with Beta 2 that are fixed in the CTP build

Virtual PC and Virtual Server are a great way of running both builds side by side on one development - check them out(https://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtualpc/default.mspx and https://www.microsoft.com/windowsserversystem/virtualserver/default.mspx)