4 ms·

They've also gotten rid of the ISO installer which is making enterprise deployment a real pain.

Yuioup 10y ago
What about volume licensing? We've been waiting a few days and nothing is showing up.
richardwhiuk 10y ago
Out of curiosity, why is an ISO installer useful for enterprise deployment? I'd have thought an MSI would be much more useful....
- voltagex_ 10y ago
  The "official" way is to use a janky installer with a tonne of parameters and no real way to tell if you've got all the files until you try to install. With an ISO, at least you're starting from a known good base when you repackage things. I don't think Visual Studio has ever been an MSI, by the way.
  - nightski 10y ago
    There are good reasons for it. I hope a sysadmin isn't afraid of some parameters. We've been waiting a very long time for a minimal/piecewise install capable Visual Studio.
    - voltagex_ 10y ago
      Yeah, no fear here, except none of those parameters set any kind of logging and there's no way to tell if the download completed successfully (yay Australian Internet)
alkonaut 10y ago
How does such a deployment scenario work? Are there devs out there who would agree to not set up their IDE themselves? The VS installer has one million optional components, and every dev needs a different set...
- Jare 10y ago
  Imagine the computers used and shared by students in a University.
- pjmlp 10y ago
  Yes, typical enterprise IT. You get a development workstation configured by IT with the standard tooling allowed inside the company. Regarding Visual Studio, it usually means a full install of professional version, or with luck the enterprise version for those with architect role. Getting any software for development not configured out of the box by IT, usually means opening a ticket requesting the installation, alongside the reason why it is required and occasionally the corresponding cost center as well.
  - alkonaut 10y ago
    > Yes, typical enterprise IT. I thought that didn't apply to devs - even in a 10k people org. Doesn't this just create a massive overhead? Aren't people going to require modifying this setup regularly? (oh now I need the .NET 4.6.2. targeting pack, tomorrow it's the MsBuild 12.0 tools and next week it'll be the SDK for Win10 developers update (They release one SDK update per Win update!). > Getting any software for development not configured out of the box by IT, usually means opening a ticket requesting the installation, alongside the reason why it is required and occasionally the corresponding cost center as well. It feels like a massive administrative overhead if you have to raise IT support tickets in order to modify a VS installation. This all feels like a maintenance nightmare. I can't imagine the alternative being worse (1000 devs maintaining 1000 different types of computers themselves). I thought I was in a large "enterprise-y" situation - but apparently I'm not. I'm at least trusted to face the VS installer on my own.
    - pjmlp 10y ago
      > Aren't people going to require modifying this setup regularly? (oh now I need the .NET 4.6.2. targeting pack, tomorrow it's the MsBuild 12.0 tools and next week it'll be the SDK for Win10 developers update (They release one SDK update per Win update!). No, because you are only allowed to do that if project requirements do actually need those updates. You never do that alone, it is done for all devs working on that specific project. > I thought I was in a large "enterprise-y" situation - but apparently I'm not. I'm at least trusted to face the VS installer on my own. Well, I work on consulting for large enterprises Fortune 500, DAX 30, and similar corporations. The level of freedom we get on the computers assigned to us, depends pretty much on the customer, their security processes, vendor management processes, and how their internal IT is set up. Not all customers have such tight control.
philliphaydon 10y ago
Ouch. I can't imagine working in an environment where I don't have control over my development machine and tools. (Never been in that scenario luckily)
biot 10y ago
See the response to the lack of an ISO from the Microsoft Visual Studio team here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13810821#13814975 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13810821#13814975 It links to an install guide for enterprise deployment.

What about volume licensing? We've been waiting a few days and nothing is showing up.

Out of curiosity, why is an ISO installer useful for enterprise deployment? I'd have thought an MSI would be much more useful....

voltagex_ 10y ago
The "official" way is to use a janky installer with a tonne of parameters and no real way to tell if you've got all the files until you try to install. With an ISO, at least you're starting from a known good base when you repackage things. I don't think Visual Studio has ever been an MSI, by the way.
- nightski 10y ago
  There are good reasons for it. I hope a sysadmin isn't afraid of some parameters. We've been waiting a very long time for a minimal/piecewise install capable Visual Studio.
  - voltagex_ 10y ago
    Yeah, no fear here, except none of those parameters set any kind of logging and there's no way to tell if the download completed successfully (yay Australian Internet)

alkonaut 10y ago

How does such a deployment scenario work? Are there devs out there who would agree to not set up their IDE themselves? The VS installer has one million optional components, and every dev needs a different set...

Jare 10y ago
Imagine the computers used and shared by students in a University.
pjmlp 10y ago
Yes, typical enterprise IT. You get a development workstation configured by IT with the standard tooling allowed inside the company. Regarding Visual Studio, it usually means a full install of professional version, or with luck the enterprise version for those with architect role. Getting any software for development not configured out of the box by IT, usually means opening a ticket requesting the installation, alongside the reason why it is required and occasionally the corresponding cost center as well.
- alkonaut 10y ago
  > Yes, typical enterprise IT. I thought that didn't apply to devs - even in a 10k people org. Doesn't this just create a massive overhead? Aren't people going to require modifying this setup regularly? (oh now I need the .NET 4.6.2. targeting pack, tomorrow it's the MsBuild 12.0 tools and next week it'll be the SDK for Win10 developers update (They release one SDK update per Win update!). > Getting any software for development not configured out of the box by IT, usually means opening a ticket requesting the installation, alongside the reason why it is required and occasionally the corresponding cost center as well. It feels like a massive administrative overhead if you have to raise IT support tickets in order to modify a VS installation. This all feels like a maintenance nightmare. I can't imagine the alternative being worse (1000 devs maintaining 1000 different types of computers themselves). I thought I was in a large "enterprise-y" situation - but apparently I'm not. I'm at least trusted to face the VS installer on my own.
  - pjmlp 10y ago
    > Aren't people going to require modifying this setup regularly? (oh now I need the .NET 4.6.2. targeting pack, tomorrow it's the MsBuild 12.0 tools and next week it'll be the SDK for Win10 developers update (They release one SDK update per Win update!). No, because you are only allowed to do that if project requirements do actually need those updates. You never do that alone, it is done for all devs working on that specific project. > I thought I was in a large "enterprise-y" situation - but apparently I'm not. I'm at least trusted to face the VS installer on my own. Well, I work on consulting for large enterprises Fortune 500, DAX 30, and similar corporations. The level of freedom we get on the computers assigned to us, depends pretty much on the customer, their security processes, vendor management processes, and how their internal IT is set up. Not all customers have such tight control.

philliphaydon 10y ago

Ouch. I can't imagine working in an environment where I don't have control over my development machine and tools. (Never been in that scenario luckily)

biot 10y ago

See the response to the lack of an ISO from the Microsoft Visual Studio team here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13810821#13814975 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13810821#13814975 It links to an install guide for enterprise deployment.