We had previously announced that our price point for Visual Studio Express was $99 per edition, but that they would be free for the first year.
Yesterday, we announced they would be free indefinitely. I didn't have any fore-knowledge of the decision, but it seems like it was inevitable. Visual Studio is clearly the best environment for doing .NET development (and you all know I wouldn't say that if I didn't believe it). Giving students and hobbyists a free way to learn the professional development environment is absolutely the right thing to do.
Now if only they would push the unit testing framework through all SKUs, including all the Express SKUs...