Microsoft's SQL Server team announced an official release date for a major update to its venerable SQL Server relational database management system. General availability for SQL Server 2016 is June 1.

In March Microsoft made the SQL Server 2014 Developer edition free for Visual Studio Dev Essentials members and announced the same will be true when SQL Server 2016 is released.

SQL Server 2016 Standard: Microsoft is aiming this version as a lighter offering of its database management system, with support for 24 cores and basic security enhancements. SQL Server 2016 Express: ...

SQL Server 2005 Express Edition will replace Microsoft SQL Server Desktop Engine as the software maker's lightweight database offering of choice.

General availability for SQL Server 2016 is June 1. The announcement comes with specific information on features per edition. "Today we are announcing the features in our editions, including ...