Developers Balk at VS2010 Price Points -- Visual Studio Magazine

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Developers Balk at VS2010 Price Points

In the wake of the VS2010 beta 2 release last week, Microsoft announced a simplified packaging and pricing scheme for professional developers.

In response to my Deal or No Deal on VS2010 Pricing blog posting last week, all of the readers who weighed in—except one who suggested the free Express options-- had issues with the new packaging scheme. Your verdict: No deal.

Mike of Bloomington said:

"The simplified packaging is appreciated. Hefty price increases are tough to deal with. We get our MDSN Premium through an Enterprise agreement for all our MS software. The cost of this agreement is already significant for our regional hospital."

Paul of Los Angeles commented:

"Microsoft is making a big mistake pricing Visual Studio this way. This would have been the perfect opportunity to get more developers on board with .NET and WPF. Instead, they're going to lose more developers to the open source crowd, there will be fewer Windows 7 apps available for consumers, and Windows Mobile will fade away as Apple grows with their iPhone apps. Such a shame. I really like working with Visual Studio, but I think it's time [to] open my horizons perhaps."

Anthony commented:

"Not all users of Visual Studio are developers. For example I'm involved in engineering and programs are written by one individual (engineer) for in-house use. The programs are primarily functional with no frills. Any Visual Studio beyond Standard would be a waste of money. Sorry, there will be no upgrade."

And several readers who preferred anonymity weighed in:

"I develop productivity apps to help employees do their jobs more efficiently. With the price increases, I do not think our CIO will be able to show an ROI for the upgrade. We do not develop applications for resale, we are just a small company that is trying to stay in business."

"This is a huge disappointment to me as I have been looking to enter the Microsoft development world from the Open Source and Mac side - where IDEs and deployment costs are minimum to none compared to this. Develop and deploy apps for iPhone: $100 (w/ a Mac). Develop and deploy apps for Windows Mobile: $1300?!?! Really Microsoft... is this how you hope to continue dominance in the market?"

"The whole VS package is rapidly turning .NET programmers into a hide-bound society of technicians trapped in an endless cycle of adaptation to new MS approaches, instead of helping them become ever more skillful and productive in design, architecture, and implementation…. I totally agree with Steve Forte [who voted for one version of Visual Studio] -- MS is losing its appeal fast, and won't capture new generations of excited and productive developers by pricing them out of the game with idiotically complicated packaging schemes. Successful marketing is based on making it *easy* for the customer, but that principle seems too simple for the complexity-addicts at MS."

"There is always the Express version for those on the way up (or down). That is priced just right (to kill the market for competitors (if there were any))."

For people who need more than what is offered in the Express editions (which traditionally have not supported add-ins or extensions) but don't want to fork over $800 or more for VS2010 Professional, Microsoft's Polita Paulus in the Developer Division offers hope that more promotions may appear around the launch. In response to a blog reader's query about the upgrade plight of VS Standard users, Paulus wrote:

"We will have a price promotion at launch to help reduce the costs for existing Standard customers, but we aren't announcing specifics at this time."

In the same comment thread, Doug Seven, the senior product manager of Visual Studio Team System, explained what is meant when Microsoft says all VS2010 users will have access to Team Foundation Server 2010, which has basic, advanced and custom installation options:

"Team Foundation Server 2010 will be included in the MSDN subscription that comes with Visual Studio 2010 Professional, Premium, Ultimate, and Test Elements. This copy of Team Foundation Server is licensed for unlimited development and test use (as is all MSDN software) and licensed for one production deployment. These MSDN subscriptions also include one CAL….
Team Foundation Server will also be available in retail for around $500 USD and will include a license term allowing up to five (5) named users without CALs to use Team Foundation Server. To grow to more than five users, simply buy CALs for the new users. This enables small teams of five or fewer to get up and running on Team Foundation Server for as little as $500 USD."

Is Microsoft out of touch with today's economic realities? Express your thoughts on Visual Studio's pricing and the "new normal," which at many dev shops includes mandates to use less expensive or open source alternatives. Or drop me a line at krichards@1105media.com

Posted by Kathleen Richards on 10/27/2009 at 4:02 PM

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Reader Comments:

Mon, Mar 28, 2011 Jeff Alabama

+1 for "can't afford it". I too have been an MS subscriber for 15 years and can't tolerate these new prices. This is a bad time to jack them up, Microsoft. What if all the car companies started increasing their prices by 20-30%? What if clothing, food, gas, and water suddenly doubled in price? Lots of people would be conserving, buying cheaper clothes, eating out less -- oh wait, that's already happening. Whoever first said, "It's the economy, stupid!" was right. Wake up MS... we're in a recession: small businesses are failing, home values are crashing, inflation is up, interest rates are down, unemployment is on the rise, jobs are harder to find, so it doesn't make sense that MS take advantage of the situation by pricing a product beyond what the bulk of their customers can afford. I'm an independent consultant on a team of 5, and none of us can fork over the $12,000 for the full package. Looks like our company too is stuck with VS2008 until we find some open source replacements, then it's "bye bye" Microsoft. This move reminds me of Oracle maybe 20 years ago, which was once small and friendly and affordable. I think one day MS development products will only be used by large government organizations and big business.

Tue, Oct 12, 2010

My company grew tired of throwing money at Microshit years ago... After looking around, they decided to go with the Qt framework - smart choice!

Wed, Feb 3, 2010 davidbaer

Often we forget the little guy, the SMB, in our discussions of the comings and goings of the Internet marketing industry. Sure there are times like this when a report surfaces talking about their issues and concerns but, for the most part, we like to talk about big brands and how they do the Internet marketing thing well or not so well. www.onlineuniversalwork.com

Wed, Feb 3, 2010 kiramatalishah

. According to the study, the most important tool for small businesses to succeed in 2010 is search engine marketing, while email marketing, public relations and social media cited as crucial for success. 23.8% of all small businesses reported that search engine marketing was the tool most needed for their business to succeed in 2010. www.onlineuniversalwork.com

Wed, Jan 27, 2010 davidbaer

The Center for Media Research has released a study by Vertical Response that shows just where many of these ‘Main Street’ players are going with their online dollars. The big winners: e-mail and social media. With only 3.8% of small business folks NOT planning on using e-mail marketing and with social media carrying the perception of being free (which they so rudely discover it is far from free) this should make some in the banner and search crowd a little wary. www.onlineuniversalwork.com

Wed, Jan 27, 2010 davidbaer

What I like about small business owners is that they are not afraid to take huge risks and lay it all on the line. But, I agree they do need a lot of help with their marketing. I think having them go the social media and email route is not only the least expensive but its also the most effective. Thanks for the stats! With Facebook and Twitter being among the leaders of the Social networks, marketing as a small business is being transformed.. Respondents according to the Vertical Response survey appear to need some differentiation with the use of SE marketing and Social media Marketing www.onlineuniversalwork.com

Tue, Jan 26, 2010 Rich

As a professonal developer, I've always tried to stay up-to-date with Microsoft tools at home regardless of what version my employer happens to be using. Microsoft has made this harder and harder to do with every release. I'm currently using a copy of VS2008 Standard w/ Expression they sold as a bundled offer last year. Unless they come up with a similar offer I won't be forking over another tribute to them given the totally incremental upgrades VS2010 offers (and have you been reading the latest on the new help system in VS2010? egads!)

Sun, Jan 24, 2010 coetsee

Anyone experience anything about the easy google profit kit? I discovered a lot of advertisements around it. I also found a site that is supposedly a review of the program, but the whole thing seems kind of sketchy to me. However, the cost is low so I’m going to go ahead and try it out, unless any of you have experience with this system first hand www.onlineuniversalwork.com

Sun, Jan 10, 2010 kiramatalishah

How To Make money with affiliate programs Today. Affiliate marketing is the easier and probably the most effective method to make money from the internet. It is basically, a kind of selling technique where potential buyers from your website are directed to the websites of sellers. For every click, the website owner gets a small commission. www.onlineuniversalwork.com

Sun, Jan 10, 2010 kiramatalishah

Sun, Jan 10, 2010 soamie

Affiliate Marketing On The Internet Affiliate Marketing is a performance based sales technique used by companies to expand their reach into the internet at low costs. This commission based program allows affiliate marketers to place ads on their websites or other advertising efforts such as email distribution in exchange for payment of a small commission when a sale results. www.onlineuniversalwork.com

Wed, Jan 6, 2010 charlesbrooks

Affiliate Marketing is a performance based sales technique used by companies to expand their reach into the internet at low costs. This commission based program allows affiliate marketers to place ads on their websites or other advertising efforts such as email distribution in exchange for payment of a small commission when a sale results. www.onlineuniversalwork.com

Wed, Jan 6, 2010 ridwanzero

If you really did find a working formula that made you, say $1,000 a week online on average and it kept producing income no matter what, would you want to sell that idea to a bunch of noobs for $47 a pop and expect to retire on the proceeds? No way, man! It does not compute. It does not add up. And it does not make any sense to do that. I certainly don’t go shouting from the rooftops how I make my money online. Hell, I don’t want the competition taking a slice of my pie and neither would anyone who really does make good cash online. www.onlineuniversalwork.com

Tue, Jan 5, 2010 Rick

Is it just me, or does it seem like MS has a special department setup for the sole purpose of antagonizing developers? $1300 for VS2010! No thanks MS. Now where is that Eclipse Download URL?

Sun, Jan 3, 2010 charlesbrooks

Thu, Dec 10, 2009 Jamie Clayton Brisbane Australia.

I was impressed to see the VS2010 TSF changes to allow everyone a choice to use that software, rather than the us and them previous versions created. New GUI test automation tools also ofter productivity for testers, but there wasn't much that interested me as a developer that demonstrated quantifiable productivity improvements. Love the 3 editions, but definitely worried about the implicit upgrade migration and costing. Even worse is MS international pricing post USD devaluation. International customers are paying significantly more because of MS fix exchange rate approach. Not happy that MS doesn't believe in fluctuating exchange rates on there software sold overseas.

Tue, Nov 3, 2009

Product management - empowering nobody ... Instead they try to convey the "brand" new experience "I need this". Well, it may work for brain washed consumers ... So get the role straight ... is Microsoft still the major for all software vendor empowering "everybody" with "cloud computing in any software developers house" ... or a lolly pop store popping brain wash consumer messages? Microsoft, where do you want to go?

Tue, Nov 3, 2009

So to restate my point product management is making the products inaccessible for the majority of application developers. You can not do automation on a small scale. That was also in the original perspective - actually also by Microsoft, IBM and others - that middleware including accessible tools for app developers are important to achieve the cloud. So what happens ... Microsoft product management does not understand what the cloud is about. Why do Azure and voice cloud computing if "nobody" can use it? So for instance product management need to go and ask somebody in the cloud computing department why they had to do WCF - and could not just rely on XML, SOAP and WSDL. So a nice thing for Microsoft could be if development sets the roadmap for intensional packing of products and the product management works within that reference frame of an IT-mission to earn money.

Tue, Nov 3, 2009

Microsoft should have product management help packing the products as intended and not repackaging the products to be of less value than competitors. Microsoft R&D knows the vision of automation and do well, however the products gets more and more aligned with a different mission concerned with money - a legacy from the 90'ties and very IBM-like (conservative business and comfort zone). And that gap of vision and mission has increased heavily lately in the last couple of years. SP 2010 gets some back, however I'm sure product mangement will be in there anyway ripping stuff apart. Hopefully they were not allowed to this time. The different packing of search the last couple of years is probably some of the worst I've seen Microsoft do completely ignoring needs of developers and focusing on branding instead. And lets see about the cloud computing if it aligns with the UDDI perspective on public clouds or it becomes a money pot mission instead of an automation mission. Meanwhile for WS use Java and TDD for OO and compositional designs - better flexibility than .NET and may be upcoming more production value (going off the natve Windows desktop and towards hypermedia-like experiences). See my position here: http://reddevnews.com/blogs/rdn-express/2009/10/deal-or-no-deal-on-new-vs2010-pricing.aspx

Fri, Oct 30, 2009 David W

Let's see: Building apps for a DOA mobile platform from Windoze: $1,300. Building apps for open-development Android: Zero, save for the time to download the Eclipse IDE and the Android SDK. Watching Microsoft boil in its own juices: Priceless.

Thu, Oct 29, 2009

Classic bunch of haters. While Micrsooft does a lot of stuff wrong they don't do everything wrong. Will Android probably dominate the mobile market in the next year huge yes. But the new release of VS does improve on some things. For instance Silverlight you had to do coding in VS 08 and graphics in expression blend now you can do all in VS 2010. Learn your versions of VS and look the express editions and or dream spark/biz spark/web spark. Also look at the Action Pack if you are a developer. They do make it affordable if you do some digging. Which brings to a fault you shouldn't have to do digging to know these great resource values exist. And if a 1,000 dollars is breaking your back each year, you are either not obtaining enough work or are not pricing your hours correctly. And IT budgets probably have tons of bloat in other areas look at virtualization and windows enterprise the price point is better than buying 4 server standard and the amount of hardware on 4 machines vs the one large machine generally washes or saves monetarily. Open source projects are great but at some point the need for those projects to be fully developed takes time of the creator which often leads to making it their jobs which means they have to get paid for it to live. This is the ebb and flow of businesses eventually your open source solutions will begin costing money and you will start complaining about that.

Thu, Oct 29, 2009 NNM

I think MS is making some very very bad decisions lately. Overpricing the main tool that makes windows applications... They are saying: "Oh please, won't you consider open source?"

Wed, Oct 28, 2009 Keoz

You all guys are ridiculous, you don't have money? go and ask for a dreamspark account if you are student, if you are startup go for webspark or bizspark, if you are 3+ years on market and cannot afford for the tools you are a failure as company go back to the real companies to work on their tools and stop complaining

Wed, Oct 28, 2009 Dazza Australia

Currently we are using VS 2008 Pro, Netbeans, and SharpDevelop which offer more than ample development tools for most small to medium developers. (We also run VB and C# Express as they run so much nicer than the full version on many machines.) Now that many of our applications are moving online, we are switching many systems to Linux etc so development IDE's which are X Platform are even more tempting. (We saved $1000's and were able to expand our servers.) Microsoft technologies and applications are just becoming too expensive in the current market, both on the desktop and server areas. Finally, on testing VS 2010 beta 2, I also found it slow and sluggish, and generally bloated. Why bother paying the mega-dollars to them when better solutions are available - Free and Open SOurce!

Wed, Oct 28, 2009 Aaron Michigan

We are already implementing VS2010 and since we were pro subscribers anyway, this doesn't affect us at all. In fact, we get more now since we get a free upgrade to Premium at release. The only people this affects are the standard edition users. In fact, since TFS is being included in the Pro subscriptions now, there is more value for the same amount of money. Hobbyists don't need Standard edition. The express editions are really all they need. Face it, the standard editions were really not a hot seller. Most people who bought the standard edition can get away with the express editions.

Wed, Oct 28, 2009 LCACM

The VS2010 is perhaps so expensive as they have added unnecessary languages, such eas D,F ...The price should be much lower for developers, as otherwise they will be forced to look elsewhere.

Wed, Oct 28, 2009 barry washington

Cost is always an issue. Comparing the cost spent by a mechanic or carpenter is Ridiculous - the tools i have for such mechanical things last - FOREVER - microsoft has been increasing the frequency of product releases at a frantic speed as they struggle to keep up with mistakes made in previous cycles. High prices combined with a short lifespan will take Microsoft out of the business as quickly as any other suggestions made by those trained by the "OTHER" schools. Give us a product designed by technical pros and transfer the "OTHERS" to the shipping dock. obfuscating the real cost of doing business with microsoft is a strategy learned by the marketig department. it is too bad that those employing such strategies seem to have missed the long term dangers of such tactics.

Wed, Oct 28, 2009 Reality Advice

Doesn't Microsoft get it? Have they forgotten? It's apps that drive demand for core platforms. That's the reality of why Windows has been a success. It's also why the iPhone and other rival platforms would gain ground. If Microsoft pushes away developers and jerks them around with disruptive, ill thought-through programming paradigms (com!, linq-to-sql, .net 1.1, web-form-pages, etc...) every 3-5 years, then their army of creative app developers will dwindle and defect to open source alternatives. Developers might seek an open source world, where their career skills & development isn't held hostage by whimisically convoluted concoctions driven by phd "one-upsmanship", business/lawyer directives, & overly complex rube-goldberg programming paradigms from Redmond.

Wed, Oct 28, 2009

VC6 and the equally ancient eVT3 does everything and without all extra (irritating) hand-holding of the later versions of VS. No Thanks MS. I'll spend what little cash I have to spare on some nice books. On Java ;)

Wed, Oct 28, 2009 Jeff Pogo Memphis, TN

Use Qt and you do not need all that .NET bloatware or a new MSDN subscription! Qt is GPL! C++ too!

Wed, Oct 28, 2009 Dale

The cost of software development tools can a tough sell to the project sponsors. With the economy the way it is, this problem will only get worse. The cost of VS will influence my ability and willingness to adopt it - especially in light of so many open source alternatives.

Wed, Oct 28, 2009 Alex

Businesses, especially the big ones, might buy VS (or not - my recent request for software has been flatly denied for the rest of the fiscal year, another 6 months or so. After 6 months.... we'll see.... Maybe...) But what about the developers who want to stay current and can't study at work ? How will I be able to justify spending that money out of my own pocket ? (As I was saying - I am NOT a contractor, I am a full-time developer, without a big salary). I cannot say at work "I dunno - give me a day or two - I'll come back to you with an answer by Friday !" The Express version is not always good enough. Suggestions ?

Wed, Oct 28, 2009 rg

Successive whacking of developers every 2-3 years is not a good formula to keep them (or businesses) aboard.

First 2003, then 2005, then 2008, now 2010. In 2012 some say the earth ends... that'd break the cycle (maybe).

Anyone whos read up on Windows Mobile knows that MS has been losing significant ground to Apple (OS/X) and Symbian. Android 2.0 set to release momentarily and ALOT of providers supporting it.

Microsoft is essentially positioning itself to loose the mobile market and hand back quite a bit of gain (of .NET) to Open Source again. Aka: Mobile applications are driven via internet connected servers. If developers are coding for Android odd's are the server end of that will also be developed using the same language platform(s).

Its just plain dumb on MS's part to go this way.

On the other hand, watch what happens to Apple who apparently learned NOTHING from the Macintosh history. iPhone... Touch screen, motion sensors, quality user interface, OS/X "under the hood". Nice. However since Apple locks OS/X Snow Leopard to Apple hardware they instantly limit the "APP" development audience (note can still develop for Safari). Not so smart. So one need spend $800 for a Mac, $100 for the dev kit and then you need use the Apple App Store to Market your App and they want 15% of every sale. Not so smart. And... most developers are not making "good money", in fact, most are making crap money.

Apple has not learned that PROPRIETARY means LIMITED for consumers, providers and APPLE itself. Dumb. Where-as Apple SHOULD try and MOVE OS/X from FreeBSD Unix to a GOOD linux rendition and then SELL the operating system to PC users who might rather like OS/X (whatever its called, OS XI "Tabby" :) ). Instead Apple thinks "Hardware" is where long term profit is, Apparently Steve Jobs and crew have short memories.

Reality is Google is going to end up stomping the both Apple and Microsoft in the Mobile Market (not so sure about Symbian as the folks involved actually do have a brain there).

Again, while the iPhone is NEATO and neat hardware etc, a Class "A" device the MONEY comes from WHAT CAN PEOPLE DO WITH IT. Most folks buying iPhones rapidly learn they can Jailbreak them and thus get tons of applications external from Apples App Store. Apple is working hard to try and close off that ability. Again, they SHOULD be PROVIDING FREEDOM of capabilities... THATS WHAT LOCKS PEOPLE INTO BUYING THE NEXT iGIZMO DEVICE. Dummies.

The iPhone isnt even a really good telephone as phones go. But as a device its like a mini lil' portable computer, game system and yes... phone. Yet, they try and CONTROL software very dumb.

As Forest Gump said, "Stoopid is as stoopid does".

Microsoft should be offering the FULL Pro Edition w/ MSDN to NEW developer sign ups for $399 or so. Make sure that .NET gets a nice boost and prepare themselves (yesterday) for the new mobile market or get swept away (which is whats happening).

Wed, Oct 28, 2009

Looks like back to the VC++6 for me:( I can't believe what a bloat VS became, needs min 4 gigs to install - I mean, seriously, people.

Wed, Oct 28, 2009 Philipp

I'm kind of in a dilemma - I'm a one-man show, and I want to develop industry-grade applications. With MSFT products, this means that I pay top dollars for the tools that are essential to keep the Windows ecosystem alive. This is highly contradictive in my opinion. Paying cash for IDEs does *not* pay off, the least for Microsoft, who tie their success to the Windows platform.

Wed, Oct 28, 2009

THE Magic formula: VC Express + Windows Driver Kit 7 (has ATL7) + WTL 8 Kicks ass for 0$!

Wed, Oct 28, 2009

Yes, we can all use express editions of visual studio. And yes, a lot of developers can afford to keep paying ever increasing prices for developer tools. As several people have stated before, Microsoft should be trying to get as many developers as possible involved in building applications for their platform, not driving away a few more developers with each release.
Google seems to be opening up development on their new phones and is talking about an introducing an operating system for the netbooks in 2010. Several companies I consult for a planning to introduce non-Microsoft servers for the first time in 2010. While neither will make much difference to Microsoft right away, every little bit adds on.
Years ago, Microsoft was for a time, considered the innovator in a world of lumbering giants out of touch with the people that supported them. Now it seems Microsoft has become that lumbering giant, more concerned with how much they can make from a single release or product rather than what will this do for the company in the years to come.

Wed, Oct 28, 2009 TechStuffbc

Microsoft, you have just priced me out of increasing productivity for my colleagues I develop solutions for at our small company. Is this your 'answer' to open source? I develop in a mono IDE (VS2005). I will find it of necessity to move to Mono IDE, begrudgingly.

Wed, Oct 28, 2009 Jay Minneapolis, MN

Hello, everyone? Express Editions? I use that at home for some hobby-type development and a little side-work, and it does everything I've needed it to do.

Wed, Oct 28, 2009

To the MS Accountants: The cost recovery should NOT be in the Visual Studio department - cheap dev pricing will benefit EVERY OTHER Microsoft department. You should be almost giving this stuff away -$99 is a good start. Microsoft has no idea what MASSIVE consequences this high pricing holds for them in the years to come. Then, like usual, they'll react too late, and the .NET programmers will never come back. It's like they WANT us to leave.

Wed, Oct 28, 2009 Richard Calgary

We'll see how Mono stacks up with the new featues when they get implemented, Linux is looking more favourable all the time. We will also see what the educational pricing is at before we determine course of action. We want to use M$ products however, pricing may put the Windows in the same arena as Mac programming years ago, out standing alone in center field instead of outstanding.

Wed, Oct 28, 2009

When EVC3 (then 4) was free Windows Mobile dominated handheld devices. Now it fading fast. The lesson is clear. Apps drive platform sales. Development tools drive app availability. Seriously?!?!? this concept is too complicated for the brain trust in Redmond? They should fall all over themselves to get VS into the hands of everyone and anyone.

Wed, Oct 28, 2009

What a burden. I used to be really excited about Viz C++ when I could afford it. This is a burden.

Wed, Oct 28, 2009

Microsoft needs to get a grip and remind themselves of how they got to where they are. Anyone remember Visual C++ for $50? Way back when....

Wed, Oct 28, 2009 Tommy Sun Valley, CA

I have never been able to afford MSDN subscriptions but with this I dont know if I can upgrade to 2010 at all. Us small guys (one man internally) need a break. Microsoft got its hold on the world by making it easy to create windows apps. It is still easy but with a hefty price Ruby is looking pretty shiny and easy.

Wed, Oct 28, 2009 James Murphy

Looking at this, Pro with MSDN is about the same price its always been and - so far as I can see - pretty much remains the sweet spot in terms of affordability vs capability (and in terms of the latter has always seemed to me to be the entry level for serious development).

Wed, Oct 28, 2009

Any application team member (dev, arch, tester, BA) worth a lick is probably getting paid $50K - $150K a year EASILY. How is spending 1% of that a year on tools ridiculous? If you are writing applications you then deliver to customers to run their business on and you DON'T architect, design, and test it too, you're doing it wrong. I've been in software for 10 years, and I know I wasted a lot of time chasing down problems that I could have easily identified if I'd had real tools. QA took forever, noone could really define problems or reproduce errors and easily fix and regression test them until these tools came along. If this tools saves you even 10 minutes a day, it pays for itself in a year. Sure, save $500 on your developer tool today, but waste THOUSANDS a year on the time people spend chasing their tails because you gave them cheap tools that only supports about 25% of the work they do. BRILLIANT!

Wed, Oct 28, 2009 what NJ

I currently have a Team Suite edition for MSDN. The proposed ultimate edition would be around $1000 more then I am paying now. I think the key to justifing this price is if VS 2010 really aids in productivity. To justify $1000 extra, VS 2010 needs to save me around a day of work over the course of a year. I am pretty sure that will not be a problem. For those of you with small businesses, students and others who don't have huge pockets, I would look at the programs that MS has such as WebSite Spark that give you tools for free.

Wed, Oct 28, 2009

Let’s see…
SQL server has been kicked out of the British stock exchange due to massive failure.
Window’s mobile is pretty much on the bottom of the phone desirability list.
Sidekick data loss is blamed on Microsoft.
Explorer market share is slowly dropping.
Microsoft seems to be trying to alienate developers.

Maybe Bill should have given a little more thought to who he left in charge.

Wed, Oct 28, 2009 wotist

You know thats rubbish ms will do as they always to and create, a varity of different levels. The anthony guy should look at sharpdevelop if he is not using any of the advanced features. Its not difficult to only use free tools Monodevelop, and sharp develop are great, and you can set up a full free system using nunit, subversion, and cruise control for you build server and version control. And you ahve thing like sharpreports for your crystal reporting needs. The reason you and I will continue buying Microsoft is the fact it is a professional tool kit. the cost is silly but thats life.

Wed, Oct 28, 2009

I have always been tight fisted when it came to forking over money for development tools and every company I have worked for has been the same way. But if I suspect that the average automotive mechanic or automotive shop would laugh at you if they heard you complaining about spending a few thousand dollars per year on tools. Without a doubt, software development is growing more and more complex and added complexity and increased cost usually go hand in hand.

Wed, Oct 28, 2009 Harry Nystrom Spring, TX

I fully agree with the previous comments. I am also an independent contractor, and, to date, have been paying for the highest-level MSDN subscription for a number of years. If Microsoft retains its announced pricing strategy, I will no longer be able to afford it. Is Microsoft trying to encourage a "large corporation only" developer community? Is that really in their best interests? In my experience, most innovation and advancement of technology takes place with the independent developer and small company. If Microsoft really wants to expand the influence of .NET, I believe they would be better served to offer more affordable pricing to the independent contractor and to small business.

Wed, Oct 28, 2009

We are a small shop and won't be upgrading due to the high cost. We may look to open source.

Wed, Oct 28, 2009

At the rate they are going, pretty soon then only people using Microsoft tools will be sitting in Redmond. I have programmed with MS products for just over 20 years and it really pains me that now I am forced to start looking for alternatives. I know MS has their costs to recover but pricing their development tools to a point that it reduces the number of people that create applications for your platform seems counterproductive in my opinion. I am hugely disappointed as I was really looking forward to VS2010. At this point, I am going to uninstall the beta and will be sticking with VS2008 and hopefully will find another technology to move forward with.

Wed, Oct 28, 2009 Max Peck

I certainly don't have a problem paying for the technology if it's reasonably priced but c'mon Microsoft, don't do this. I will be sticking with VS2005 Standard for any consulting projects I do if you're going to price things like this. What happened up there, too much rain in the Pacific Northwest seep into your brains?

Wed, Oct 28, 2009 Scott Indiana, USA

That's insane! Developers need to be able to code outside of work to be entirely capable, and MS is going to price the individual right into open source.

Wed, Oct 28, 2009 USA

I also like the simplified packaging (and am excited about the new .NET framework), but the pricing will be forcing me to look for alternative development environments - the Pro version should be half the price it will be going for; most of us don't need all the stuff that is being bundled. Whatever happened to "DEVELOPERS, DEVELOPERS, DEVELOPERS!" Sigh. So long, .NET, I hardly knew ye.

Wed, Oct 28, 2009 MehGerbil MI, USA

I don't know much about marketing, but I'd think passing out the premium edition (all features) for $99 a seat would go a long ways in securing .NET as THE development environment. While that might be a money loser at first, I should think in the long run it would be very profitable.

Wed, Oct 28, 2009 Dave Buffalo, NY

People paying for an IDE and version control? Good luck with that. I hope they keep pricing themselves right into extinction.

Wed, Oct 28, 2009 Theo

Ms is missing the point with all the versions; for example UML only in the most expensive version? Get real MS! Because of the pricing I am closely following the progress of Mono. As soon as they have a real multi platform reporting tool with the capabilities of crystal reports, it is bye bye for Visual studio.

Wed, Oct 28, 2009 Dennis Drew United States

I have been with MS suite for about 20 years and I will not go forward with 2010. You can guess why. Maybe Bill needs to come back and get things back in shape at Microsoft, they are losing it.

Tue, Oct 27, 2009

Many companies only need a small push (read cost) to jump from the Microsoft stack to open source for application development tools, database servers, source control, etc. One thing that saves Microsoft (given an already large base of .NET code out ther) is how far behind Mono lags the commercial release. Come on, Mono community! Free us!

Tue, Oct 27, 2009 Marc Beaverton, OR

Considering the cost of an engineer (150K+, including office space etc etc) we just need to prove that VS 2010 increases our productivity by 0.5%. This should not be a tough job (except wherever productivity cannot be measured at all).

Tue, Oct 27, 2009

Absolutely ridiculous. I can still remember a time when, while working for myself as an independent contractor, I could afford my own copy of Visual Studio and a full MSDN subscription. Access to all it had to offer always made it possible for me to work with a wide array of Microsoft technologies and via my familiarity with them, use them to the advantage of my clients. No longer, and not for a long, long time - affording a personal subscription has long since been impossible. Now the companies for which I work can no longer afford them either - at company after company after company, requests for Microsoft's more advanced tools and technologies: DENIED.

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