The Difference in the XNA Line of Products
XNA Framework is a set of managed code development libraries that make it more possible for game developers to be more productive when creating games for Windows and XBOX360. It also includes the Content Pipeline allowing developers to more easliy incorporate 3D content into their games.
XNA Game Studio Express contains a full set of
- documentations
- how-tos
- starter kits
demonstrating how to use the XNA Framework, as well as acting as an IDE for game development on the XNA Framework for enthusiasts and academic. Microsoft would be releasing the XNA Studio for professional game development at a later date.
XNA is completely different from Managed DirectX (MDX), specially targeted at Game Developers. It shares similar technologies to MDX, since it's both based on DirectX. XNA includes other technologies such as XACT & X/Input which MDX does not. MDX 2.0 has been deprecated as of April 2006.
Read the complete post at http://darrensim.com/blogs/techbits/archive/2007/04/18/the-difference-in-the-xna-line-of-products.aspx