That’s right: Microsoft is offering the components that make up Visual Studio 2005 Express Edition for free until November 7, 2006. So yeah, you have a bunch of time left to download them. 
There’s six Express products, all of which are being offered for free:
- Visual Basic 2005 Express Edition
- Visual C# 2005 Express Edition
- Visual C++ 2005 Express Edition
- Visual J# 2005 Express Edition
- Visual Web Developer 2005 Express Edition
- SQL Server 2005 Express Edition
Microsoft does clarify on their site that the downloads will not be free until November 7 – they will be 100% free forever if you download them before that date. Considering each Express product will cost $49, this free offer will save you $294. Microsoft also claims that registering the Express products will give you thousands of dollars worth of free stuff. Sounds good to me. 
For those of us who have been meaning to someday take a look at the possibility of doing some programming, is it worth the download, just in case?
Michael
Are you asking whether Visual Studio is a good place to start programming?
If so, then I’d say “sure,” though you should start with a language easy-to-use like Visual Basic rather than something like Visual C++. The first programming language I learned was BASIC; some variant thereof should be a good starting point.
Hey; I think I’ve found out what JSS is.
My theory seems to match all the available data. Let ME know if YOU want to hear my guess. 