If you're super strapped for cash, just get an MSDN subscription, and use it for everything. It's not legal, but Microsoft knows there's more money to be made b

If you're super strapped for cash, just get an MSDN subscription, and use it for everything. It's not legal, but Microsoft knows there's more money to be made by letting you become successful (at which point you pay real money for licensing) than there is in going after your initial few counts of infringement. I must disagree with this one point. I cannot see a justification for taking software illicitly like that. In my opinion, VS and SQL Server are well worth their price, but if you disagree the answer is to use open source software not take it like that. Aside from that, I think you have some very good points. I am primarily a SQL Server DBA and I think that for many applications it is the best RDBMS available. I am also a fan of Visual Studio for certain types of projects (though I also make use of Python).