8 ms·

Visual Studio now available in cloud subscriptions

113 points by mynameisvlad 11y ago

yread 11y ago
$539/yr (with MSDN subscription) or $45/mo (without) versus $499 for the standalone and $1199 for MSDN subscription
- dragonwriter 11y ago
  > $539/yr (with MSDN subscription) or $45/mo (without) So, MSDN has a net cost of -$1?
  - mynameisvlad 11y ago
    Yes. You only get the MSDN benefits on annual subscriptions. Plus, the benefit comes with $50/mo in Azure credit, so it can pay for itself and then some.
vblord 11y ago
For those of you indie developers that want Visual Studio (non-community edition) but don't want to pay for Visual Studio. MS run a program called BizSpark. You can get a few MSDN items (windows, office, VS, SQL Server, etc...) for free for 3 years. https://www.microsoft.com/bizspark/ https://www.microsoft.com/bizspark/
- wehadfun 11y ago
  I've used it a few times very nice program!
- cmdkeen 11y ago
  You also get a $150 a month of Azure credits for 3 years so the value of the offer is massive if you make full use of it. Given the increased openness of MS products the risk of vendor lock-in, traditionally the criticism of Bizspark, is reduced. In 3 years time MS is likely going to be competing with all the other major players in running .Net code rather than operating in its own space.
- Someone1234 11y ago
  Bizspark is great. But let me just give a generic reminder: Consider what you'll do after the three years if you get heavily invested. If you are a Microsoft shop either way then it doesn't matter too much, but if you're making technological choices now, consider how well that will scale without free licenses (e.g. ASP.net/MVC, how much is Windows Serve licensing going to cost you? Visual Studio? Active Directory? MS SQL?). This isn't an anti-Microsoft post, just a post to remind everyone to think about the future of your small business with technological choices. Bizspark is designed for you to get yourself into the Microsoft's way of doing things (which is good and bad, depending on your needs, etc). I actually like Microsoft's stack, but realise it is expensive, too expensive for many small businesses.
  - cmdkeen 11y ago
    It is also $150 a month of cloud time which will run lots of other stacks including Linux VMs if you want to run your own thing. If you want to write .Net but mitigate the Windows TCO risk write software that runs on .Net Core and is therefore cross platform, use an ORM like Entity Framework to abstract away the database. You don't get the benefits of the extra bells and whistles but these days you can write .Net that will quite happily not be tied into a MS server stack, let alone what the landscape will be in 3 years time.
  - ultramancool 11y ago
    If you're very small and have some clever devops guys you can use Visual Studio Community to develop and deploy to Mono. You _really_ have to know what you're doing with Mono though, it can be a headache, hopefully the .NET on Linux stuff will fix that up. Check out the license, for non-"enterprise" (where enterprise is >250 PCs, or >$1M in revenue) users, up to 5 users in your company can use it. https://www.visualstudio.com/en-us/mt171547.aspx https://www.visualstudio.com/en-us/mt171547.aspx
  - Thieum22 11y ago
    Isn't the Partner Network another way to get dev. softwares at a reasonable price if you meet the requirements? I always thought it was kind of the suggested path: bizspark => ms partner, but I may be wrong. https://mspartner.microsoft.com/en/us/Pages/index.aspx https://mspartner.microsoft.com/en/us/Pages/index.aspx
- daigoba66 11y ago
  Before jumping on Bizspark, I would recommend talking to companies that have used it such as Stackoverflow. Bottom line; you'll have fun not worrying about licensing for 3 years, but then you might be in for a shock.
  - mpeg 11y ago
    As a positive anecdote, the startup I worked for used the Bizspark programme and got acquired before the 3 years were up, so we never had to worry about licensing or server software costs (as the acquirer was a much larger company) Also, after the acquisition, it was probably one of the reasons why a full integration with the parent company other products wasn't considered (different tech stacks), so we integrated via APIs, which was the right decision (it would have taken too long otherwise, even on the same software stack) On the other hand, I never want to have anything to do with RDP ever again.
    - rblatz 11y ago
      You can do a surprising amount via powershell and wmi
- vyrotek 11y ago
  Great program! Our company leveraged it years ago and we're still around :) Also be sure to check into BizSpark Plus!
frugalmail 11y ago
If you're stuck on Windows/.NET this is good. But the bigger question is WTF are you doing developing on Windows (unless they're games). They're making good progress open sourcing, and at some point it will have enough community worthwhile open libraries, support multiple platforms, but it still is a bad decision.
- cwyers 11y ago
  > But the bigger question is WTF are you doing developing on Windows (unless they're games). The market share of desktop users is, what, 94/4/2 between Windows, OS X and Linux? And there are use cases where native apps still beat web apps. So, shockingly, if you're developing apps for Windows users, you're developing... on Windows.
  - easytiger 11y ago
    I assume he means on the server side. Most of us have the good luck to never need author a GUI, the hellhole of developer productivity that it is
    - copperx 11y ago
      You must be joking. Developing GUI apps is MUCH simpler than developing a backend with responsive HTML5/Javascript frontend.
      - easytiger 11y ago
        > HTML5/Javascript That's GUI development too
    - cwyers 11y ago
      ...why would you assume that? Are there enough server-side games that are Windows-specific for him to make that caveat if he meant server side development?
      - 11y ago
abluecloud 11y ago
How nice of them to give me $1 off when paying yearly.
- Coincoin 11y ago
  You also get "Subscriber benefits" if you get the annual subscription. No idea what they are though, the site is rather vague.
  - jrs235 11y ago
    Here are the subscriber benefits: https://www.visualstudio.com/products/subscriber-benefits-vs https://www.visualstudio.com/products/subscriber-benefits-vs
- jrs235 11y ago
  You get Full Subscriber Benefits (https://www.visualstudio.com/products/subscriber-benefits-vs https://www.visualstudio.com/products/subscriber-benefits-vs) for paying yearly, you don't get any subscriber benefits if you pay monthly.
  - jrs235 11y ago
    One such benefit is $50 per month of Azure credit for dev/test. That pays for the subscription right there.
    - at-fates-hands 11y ago
      You can also throw in the product licenses you get for all of their products as well. Last place I worked let me keep my VS Pro sub and I realized it gave me a TON of licenses with the sub: http://imgur.com/uQxIeVA http://imgur.com/uQxIeVA
jakejake 11y ago
I'm kinda surprised that MS continues to charge for visual studio. Not that it isn't worth it because it's an incredible IDE. But because it seems like Microsoft would have more to gain by having more developers using it vs the profit from developer licenses.
- wernercd 11y ago
  You get more for "free" now. Community Edition allows plugins (like Resharper) where as before it didn't. The "better" versions only add bells and whistles - which entice people onto MSDN or similar.
- 7952 11y ago
  Maybe you have it the wrong way round. My experience is limited but these Microsoft product's often make the back-end seem coincidental. If the developer only ever touches the rich GUI then that is the product that is actually valued. Making it completely free could devalue the product and allow non-Microsoft technologies to become dominant. People could seamlessly use Visual Studio to develop products that don't rely on MS products and barely even notice.
merb 11y ago
I didn't found the page where to look at the pricing / buying a monthly subscription. Currently we already consumed Bizspark so I'm looking forward for a Visual Studio 2015 monthly subscription.
cjensen 11y ago
I'm on the VS Pro with MSDN track and paying $799/year. I pay every year, and don't need a perpetual license. Is there any reason why I shouldn't switch to the cloud subscription for $539/year?

113 points by mynameisvlad 11y ago

yread 11y ago

$539/yr (with MSDN subscription) or $45/mo (without) versus $499 for the standalone and $1199 for MSDN subscription

dragonwriter 11y ago
> $539/yr (with MSDN subscription) or $45/mo (without) So, MSDN has a net cost of -$1?
- mynameisvlad 11y ago
  Yes. You only get the MSDN benefits on annual subscriptions. Plus, the benefit comes with $50/mo in Azure credit, so it can pay for itself and then some.

vblord 11y ago

For those of you indie developers that want Visual Studio (non-community edition) but don't want to pay for Visual Studio. MS run a program called BizSpark. You can get a few MSDN items (windows, office, VS, SQL Server, etc...) for free for 3 years. https://www.microsoft.com/bizspark/ https://www.microsoft.com/bizspark/

wehadfun 11y ago
I've used it a few times very nice program!
cmdkeen 11y ago
You also get a $150 a month of Azure credits for 3 years so the value of the offer is massive if you make full use of it. Given the increased openness of MS products the risk of vendor lock-in, traditionally the criticism of Bizspark, is reduced. In 3 years time MS is likely going to be competing with all the other major players in running .Net code rather than operating in its own space.
Someone1234 11y ago
Bizspark is great. But let me just give a generic reminder: Consider what you'll do after the three years if you get heavily invested. If you are a Microsoft shop either way then it doesn't matter too much, but if you're making technological choices now, consider how well that will scale without free licenses (e.g. ASP.net/MVC, how much is Windows Serve licensing going to cost you? Visual Studio? Active Directory? MS SQL?). This isn't an anti-Microsoft post, just a post to remind everyone to think about the future of your small business with technological choices. Bizspark is designed for you to get yourself into the Microsoft's way of doing things (which is good and bad, depending on your needs, etc). I actually like Microsoft's stack, but realise it is expensive, too expensive for many small businesses.
- cmdkeen 11y ago
  It is also $150 a month of cloud time which will run lots of other stacks including Linux VMs if you want to run your own thing. If you want to write .Net but mitigate the Windows TCO risk write software that runs on .Net Core and is therefore cross platform, use an ORM like Entity Framework to abstract away the database. You don't get the benefits of the extra bells and whistles but these days you can write .Net that will quite happily not be tied into a MS server stack, let alone what the landscape will be in 3 years time.
- ultramancool 11y ago
  If you're very small and have some clever devops guys you can use Visual Studio Community to develop and deploy to Mono. You _really_ have to know what you're doing with Mono though, it can be a headache, hopefully the .NET on Linux stuff will fix that up. Check out the license, for non-"enterprise" (where enterprise is >250 PCs, or >$1M in revenue) users, up to 5 users in your company can use it. https://www.visualstudio.com/en-us/mt171547.aspx https://www.visualstudio.com/en-us/mt171547.aspx
- Thieum22 11y ago
  Isn't the Partner Network another way to get dev. softwares at a reasonable price if you meet the requirements? I always thought it was kind of the suggested path: bizspark => ms partner, but I may be wrong. https://mspartner.microsoft.com/en/us/Pages/index.aspx https://mspartner.microsoft.com/en/us/Pages/index.aspx
daigoba66 11y ago
Before jumping on Bizspark, I would recommend talking to companies that have used it such as Stackoverflow. Bottom line; you'll have fun not worrying about licensing for 3 years, but then you might be in for a shock.
- mpeg 11y ago
  As a positive anecdote, the startup I worked for used the Bizspark programme and got acquired before the 3 years were up, so we never had to worry about licensing or server software costs (as the acquirer was a much larger company) Also, after the acquisition, it was probably one of the reasons why a full integration with the parent company other products wasn't considered (different tech stacks), so we integrated via APIs, which was the right decision (it would have taken too long otherwise, even on the same software stack) On the other hand, I never want to have anything to do with RDP ever again.
  - rblatz 11y ago
    You can do a surprising amount via powershell and wmi
vyrotek 11y ago
Great program! Our company leveraged it years ago and we're still around :) Also be sure to check into BizSpark Plus!

frugalmail 11y ago

If you're stuck on Windows/.NET this is good. But the bigger question is WTF are you doing developing on Windows (unless they're games). They're making good progress open sourcing, and at some point it will have enough community worthwhile open libraries, support multiple platforms, but it still is a bad decision.

cwyers 11y ago
> But the bigger question is WTF are you doing developing on Windows (unless they're games). The market share of desktop users is, what, 94/4/2 between Windows, OS X and Linux? And there are use cases where native apps still beat web apps. So, shockingly, if you're developing apps for Windows users, you're developing... on Windows.
- easytiger 11y ago
  I assume he means on the server side. Most of us have the good luck to never need author a GUI, the hellhole of developer productivity that it is
  - copperx 11y ago
    You must be joking. Developing GUI apps is MUCH simpler than developing a backend with responsive HTML5/Javascript frontend.
    - easytiger 11y ago
      > HTML5/Javascript That's GUI development too
  - cwyers 11y ago
    ...why would you assume that? Are there enough server-side games that are Windows-specific for him to make that caveat if he meant server side development?
    - 11y ago

abluecloud 11y ago

How nice of them to give me $1 off when paying yearly.

Coincoin 11y ago
You also get "Subscriber benefits" if you get the annual subscription. No idea what they are though, the site is rather vague.
- jrs235 11y ago
  Here are the subscriber benefits: https://www.visualstudio.com/products/subscriber-benefits-vs https://www.visualstudio.com/products/subscriber-benefits-vs
jrs235 11y ago
You get Full Subscriber Benefits (https://www.visualstudio.com/products/subscriber-benefits-vs https://www.visualstudio.com/products/subscriber-benefits-vs) for paying yearly, you don't get any subscriber benefits if you pay monthly.
- jrs235 11y ago
  One such benefit is $50 per month of Azure credit for dev/test. That pays for the subscription right there.
  - at-fates-hands 11y ago
    You can also throw in the product licenses you get for all of their products as well. Last place I worked let me keep my VS Pro sub and I realized it gave me a TON of licenses with the sub: http://imgur.com/uQxIeVA http://imgur.com/uQxIeVA

jakejake 11y ago

I'm kinda surprised that MS continues to charge for visual studio. Not that it isn't worth it because it's an incredible IDE. But because it seems like Microsoft would have more to gain by having more developers using it vs the profit from developer licenses.

wernercd 11y ago
You get more for "free" now. Community Edition allows plugins (like Resharper) where as before it didn't. The "better" versions only add bells and whistles - which entice people onto MSDN or similar.
7952 11y ago
Maybe you have it the wrong way round. My experience is limited but these Microsoft product's often make the back-end seem coincidental. If the developer only ever touches the rich GUI then that is the product that is actually valued. Making it completely free could devalue the product and allow non-Microsoft technologies to become dominant. People could seamlessly use Visual Studio to develop products that don't rely on MS products and barely even notice.

merb 11y ago

I didn't found the page where to look at the pricing / buying a monthly subscription. Currently we already consumed Bizspark so I'm looking forward for a Visual Studio 2015 monthly subscription.

cjensen 11y ago

I'm on the VS Pro with MSDN track and paying $799/year. I pay every year, and don't need a perpetual license. Is there any reason why I shouldn't switch to the cloud subscription for $539/year?