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'Free' is the new 'cheap' for software tools
January 31, 2006
The company on Wednesday said Visual Studio 2005 Express will be free permanently. When it was released for the first time, last November, Microsoft had said it would be free for a year.
The software giant on Wednesday also detailed a number of partnerships to provide informational resources, including snippets of source code, to nonprofessional developers.
For example, Microsoft has created an application with Lego to program the company's Mindstorm buildable robots. Microsoft is also providing tips to part-time developers to do things such as programming digital cameras, said Dan Fernandez, lead product manager for Visual Studio Express.
"There is a resurgence in hobbyist and do-it-yourself developers," Fernandez said. "We want to enable the next generation of developers."
Microsoft estimates that there are about 18 million nonprofessional programmers. Fernandez said Visual Studio 2005 Express has been downloaded 5 million times since last November.
Providing free software, particularly development tools, has become more commonplace with the swell in open-source software offerings. Companies that cater to professional programmers, such as Sun Microsystems and Microsoft, are eager to get their software into potential customers' hands.
Microsoft on Wednesday also added more features to its free database, SQL Server 2005 Express.
Visual Studio 2005 Express comes in different editions, including those for Visual Basic, C#, J#, C++ and a Web development version that uses JavaScript.
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- Who cares?
- Putting aside the fact that VB(a "language" only for the most ignorant "programmer") and C#(a poorly designed, unsecure ripoff of java) are total garbage, there still is nothing of interest here. Everything they are 'generously' giving away can already be had elsewhere, free and better quality. Much of what is not free is still available free elsewhere, again usually better quality. There is no point to this unless you are so masochistic and ignorant that you would willingly tie yourself to MS. You never need MS tools to write programs for windows(at any level, from apps to drivers).
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- Downloading this software
- Has anyone managed to actually download this software? I looked at their web pages and cannot see any download option. The Download button at the top of the page takes you back to a circular link. Maybe its just too obvious
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- I do care but ...
- I use vb6 to write professional apps that sell for 10k a piece. As a vb programmer since 95' I do appreciate it as a very serious language but lacking some basic properties here and there. I've tried vb .Net 1 and 2 and got to the conclusion that those are realy c++ compilers with vb syntax. They report errors of undeclared classes even in the most simple no code demo apps. The latest version keeps closing because of a misterious problem in the "Manifest" (??!!@) All VB advantages are gone. Some changes (like forcing to start arrays from 0, and string format) require total rewriting especially when using legacy code wrapped in a dll. It would take me at least one full year to learn this tool, and another four years to rewrite my code from scratch to this new environment. Would anyone like to pay my bills for the next five years ??? Dear Bill. WE WANT VB7 !!!! Free stuff is worth it's price.
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