Can Visual Studio 2005 Team edition for Developer coexist peacefully with Visual Studio 2008 Database edition on my machine? Are they completely separate applications that won't interfere in any way with each other?
Update: What about Visual Studio 2008 Developer edition? If I install this on the same machine as 2008 Database edition, will it create two different 'VS 2008' installs or will they merge together as a single Visual Studio 2008 with the combined functionality?
yes.
I use Visual Studio 6, Visual Studio 2005 and Visual Studio 2008 concurrently without any issues. [That too with all of them integrated with VSS]
Yes, they are completely separate apps that won't interfere with each other. I've been running both for over a year now.
2008 is side by side compatible with 2005. Also, be sure to apply 2008 SP1 as it will change the icon slightly so that you can tell the difference.
You can have both installed and make use of both. However, there are some caveats:
It's generally easier to get everyone up to vs2008 and just use that to target .Net2.0 when needed, but certainly not impossible for them to co-exist.
Generally speaking, yes that are completely separate applications. I've not tried the specific combination you mention, but I have had any number of combinations of VS 2003, VS 2005, VS 2008, and VS 2005 Express Editions all running without issue.
If VS2005 and VS2008 are mixed together on your development team, I believe you can have a VS2005 solution and a VS2008 solution and they can both load the same VS2005 projects. I'm not sure if you lose anything there (other than the VS2008-specific stuff like 3.5) but I believe it will work.