6 ms·

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. Y

by 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
  - Someone1234 11y ago
    You have to be a basic Microsoft Partner to be part of Bizspark. Some higher tiers of the partnership program receive free software. But initially you'll be at "Network member" which doesn't provide any free stuff. Silver and Gold tiers receive: - Free support (20 and 50 hrs respectively, 15 and 20 incidents) - Internal use licenses: 25 and 50 on-site respectively. - MSDN: 5 or 10 seats. However to get to Silver or Gold you need: - Customer references: 3 or 5 (silver or gold). - Business-focused competency assessment: 1 or 2. - Revenue commitment (i.e. buy a certain number of Microsoft licenses) - Microsoft certified staff: 1 or 2 minimum (that must be active, so renewed every few years). The Silver and Gold partnership tiers are pointless for large business/corporations, and unreachable for startups/small businesses. They're really for mid level businesses that are Microsoft focused.
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!

by vblord 11y ago

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
- Someone1234 11y ago
  You have to be a basic Microsoft Partner to be part of Bizspark. Some higher tiers of the partnership program receive free software. But initially you'll be at "Network member" which doesn't provide any free stuff. Silver and Gold tiers receive: - Free support (20 and 50 hrs respectively, 15 and 20 incidents) - Internal use licenses: 25 and 50 on-site respectively. - MSDN: 5 or 10 seats. However to get to Silver or Gold you need: - Customer references: 3 or 5 (silver or gold). - Business-focused competency assessment: 1 or 2. - Revenue commitment (i.e. buy a certain number of Microsoft licenses) - Microsoft certified staff: 1 or 2 minimum (that must be active, so renewed every few years). The Silver and Gold partnership tiers are pointless for large business/corporations, and unreachable for startups/small businesses. They're really for mid level businesses that are Microsoft focused.

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!