I’m a little late with posting this news, but I figured it never hurts to repeat it and get the information out to as many people as possible.
Yes, you read it correctly, SharePoint Designer is now free. There were some rumors going around that it was an April Fools Joke by Microsoft, but 5 days later, it is still free, still available for download and definitely not a joke. Here are some links that I gathered from Microsoft as well as various blogs that relate to SharePoint Designer and how it may effect your current SharePoint implementation.
SharePoint Designer for free interview with Tome Rizzo (YouTube)
SharePoint Designer Governance
Locking Down SharePoint Designer in your Organization
Woody Windischman’s Blog Post on the release – The guy who wrote the book on SharePoint Designer