What’s up with SQL Server 2016 Evaluation Edition?

I’m not sure if you have noticed, but when you install SQL Server 2016 Evaluation Edition you are offered to install one of the following free editions – Evaluation, Developer or Express.

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This raises the question why would you want to use Evaluation Edition?

  • Evaluation Edition has a 180 day expiration while Developer Edition has no expiration:

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  • Developer Edition has the same supported version upgrade paths as Evaluation Edition:

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Ref: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-nz/library/ms143393.aspx

  • As per Developer Edition, the Evaluation Edition licensing indicates that Production workloads are not permitted:

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Now there may be a good reason(s) to use Evaluation Edition instead of Developer Edition to get you going, but I just can’t think of any at this stage.

 

Don’t ask why ‘SQL Server 2016 Business Intelligence’ is showing as an option :) Possibly it will be revived in some form as an upgrade path for existing SQL Server 2014 Business Intelligence users.

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