Visual studio is now free!

[reaver]

Good news for small teams developing in Windows

http://techcrunch.com/2014/11/12/microsoft-makes-visual-studio-free-for-small-teams/
http://www.visualstudio.com/

[Kyzrati]

Good news indeed. I love VS. For anyone else wondering what the advantages are over the previous free versions (Express): With the professional version you'll have access to the huge number of plugins, which do wonders for productivity. (Some of these plugins you'd think should be native to the IDE itself, but whatever... it's nice to have them.)

[Krice]

The other day I tried to download VS Express 2013. I didn't like the way you have to sign up in their.. something. I just want to download the shit, not sign up to god knows what. Besides there must be some kind of catch in this, M$ wouldn't do this otherwise.

[TheCreator]

The catch is that they need more people making software for Windows, which happens to be an MS product, too .

[Kyzrati]

Like TheCreator said, plus they make a lot more money off their enterprise licenses and support than they do off individual developers, so it makes business sense to exchange that revenue stream for a more robust community, and more developers familiar with your software--experience these devs take with them to the workplace if and when they move to a larger company for which VS is not free.

And Krice, don't you have a throwaway e-mail address for signing up for random Internet stuff?

[reaver]

The catch is that they need more people making software for Windows, which happens to be an MS product, too .

Well, according to them, that's not even true:
"As part of the open source .NET project, we will also be expanding .NET to target Linux and Mac OS X in addition to Windows" (http://blogs.msdn.com/b/somasegar/archive/2014/11/12/opening-up-visual-studio-and-net-to-every-developer-any-application-net-server-core-open-source-and-cross-platform-visual-studio-community-2013-and-preview-of-visual-studio-2015-and-net-2015.aspx)

and cross-platform mobile development: http://www.visualstudio.com/news/vs2015-preview-vs#MDD

.. Anyway, we'll see how that pans out. They're being afraid of becoming irrelevant, so they make their software more lucrative I guess. Good for us. AFAIK it follows the Freemium model by making some VS plugins paid-for (but many are free)

[Kyzrati]

AFAIK it follows the Freemium model by making some VS plugins paid-for (but many are free)

The pay plugins were always pay plugins, even for licensed VS users, because they are made by third parties who charge for them. A majority are free, though, including a lot of really useful ones.

[Krice]

And Krice, don't you have a throwaway e-mail address for signing up for random Internet stuff?

No. And I fear that the new VS is going to trash VS2010 Express I have now installed. Or that the new VS is always connected to internet. I don't know.

[chooseusername]

And Krice, don't you have a throwaway e-mail address for signing up for random Internet stuff?

No. And I fear that the new VS is going to trash VS2010 Express I have now installed. Or that the new VS is always connected to internet. I don't know.

Google your concerns like everyone else.  You don't need to post and mention every little one.  If you don't find any matches, then they're likely imagined problems.

[Kyzrati]

I fear that the new VS is going to trash VS2010 Express I have now installed.

You can install multiple versions of VS alongside each other without issue. That said, if you're already using an older compiler/IDE for a project, switching mid-project can be a bad idea.

Or that the new VS is always connected to internet.

Idea: Use a firewall to block any and all software except that you strictly give permission to talk to the net. I've had VS blocked for years.

[Krice]

Idea: Use a firewall to block any and all software except that you strictly give permission to talk to the net. I've had VS blocked for years.

Can't block specific programs with MSE.

[Kyzrati]

Well, you apparently trust MS with your security, so no worries with VS then, eh? I don't really like most MS software, but VS is a pretty amazing tool.

[Krice]

Fucking jee.