Yes, Visual Studio 2005 Beta 1 is finally out, and you can revel in it at the new VS 2005 dev center. If you take a sec to register while you are there, you can also take advantage of some new features we are offering like personalization, and participation in the Product Feedback Center.
The Express products are out as well. These are lightweight, downloadable versions of some of the VS languages/technologies - should make newbie/hobbyist programming on this platform much more accessible. And, very important, there is a SQL Server 2005 Express Edition Technical Preview to take a look at. It is the next-gen of MSDE, but with lots o' enhancements thanks to some re-engineering, not to mention being based on the SQL Server 2005 engine.