A News.com
article shares that Yukon and Visual Studio.NET 2.0 will not ship until 2005. Yukon beta II and VS.NET 2.0 beta I will be out by mid-year and there may be a third beta of Yukon at the end of the year.
A perennial problem for commercial database-backed applications is how to deliver the product without requiring the client to purchase SQL Server. Traditionally the answer is to use MSDE. However, MSDE comes with licensing and performance restrictions. Microsoft has published and article on how to best work under these restrictions and how to test performance to a client can tell when they need to move up to the full SQL Server. This is a great resource!
Using MSDE in a Web Application