Could this be a cruel pre April fools day prank? I don’t have specific details, but apparently it was casually mentioned in an official Microsoft webcast today that SPD was going to be free for download after April 1 and that development is continuing on it and the next version will be included with the vNext version of SharePoint. I have no inside knowledge of this event, but I’m just reporting it for those that have not heard. If this ends up all being false info… don’t blame me.