I like the usability of Microsoft SQL especially the SQL Express versions. The only few limitations I have ran into have been some of the enterprise feature and things like backup scripts.
There is a great Codeplex package that can help
http://expressmaint.codeplex.com/
I have used a version of expressmaint for long time. The package from code plex also includes a windows2008 VB application that you can use to schedule the jobs to run.
What a great package.