After 14 years, its days are finally numbered. The first attempt to replace Jet is the Microsoft SQL Server Desktop Engine (MSDE). As a scaled-down version of SQL Server 2000, it was quite effective.

Microsoft this month pushed out 133 patches for a broad swatch of software and apps and plugged a zero-day flaw in SQL Server.

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