16 ms·

Get Visual Studio Community 2013 for Free

115 points by altaweelali 12y ago

rl3 12y ago
This is a surprising move, won't it result in a large drop in their MSDN subscriber base? I may be wrong here, but as far as I can tell, the only reason to maintain an MSDN subscription for the purposes of Visual Studio (assuming you're eligible to use Visual Studio Community 2013) is if you want the features in editions beyond Professional, you want to be on the bleeding edge, or you want the peripheral perks of subscribing. Personally I think it's a fantastic decision, I'm just surprised Microsoft is actually doing it. Hopefully they will be timely in releasing a Community edition for future versions of Visual Studio. Also, this move is pretty great for startups. I think it also puts BizSpark in a better position. Most early stage startups will no longer have to jump through hoops trying to get into BizSpark, nor prematurely start the clock ticking on that until they're ready. One of my major peeves with BizSpark has been the requirement that your company's public-facing site be more than just a "Coming Soon" page. While I can see the reasoning, it's kind of annoying when you haven't launched yet, you'd prefer to focus on your product, and you want to make said site using Visual Studio anyways.
- taspeotis 12y ago
  Where I work has 5x complimentary MSDN Premium licenses care of whatever partnership level we have with MS. So if they lost us to the community edition they'd lose $0. (And probably end up saving money, since no Azure developer credits.)
- sequence7 12y ago
  The main value of an MSDN subscription is all the subscriber downloads and the Azure credits you get. Want to try out or develop against any piece of MS software, just download it from the MSDN portal and off you go. Want to test out provisioning with Azure or fire up a server to test or dev against, just use your Azure credits. You can happily run a couple of small servers with the Azure credits. If you just want Visual Studio you could always buy it on its own for much less than a subscription.
  - badgersandjam 12y ago
    I get bugger all Azure credits with Pro. £35 a month which isn't enough to spin up one VM with 1.75Gb of RAM for a month... If I grab MAPS sub and VS community I'm well up on cash.
    - sequence7 12y ago
      £35 a month will get you four A0 Windows/Linux instances or a single Linux A1 and a single Windows/Linux A0 running full time for the month. http://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb/pricing/details/virtual-machines/#Windows http://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb/pricing/details/virtual-mac...
      - badgersandjam 12y ago
        Yeah I know. The A0 with windows server is painful. If I got an A1 for £30 I'd break even on renting a dedicated box. That's the big pain.
- gregd 12y ago
  "Most early stage startups will no longer have to jump through hoops trying to get into BizSpark, nor prematurely start the clock ticking on that until they're ready. One of my major peeves with BizSpark has been the requirement that your company's public-facing site be more than just a "Coming Soon" page. " I found BizSpark's barrier to entry, practically zero. I applied online and got accepted within hours. I just graduated last month. I never got bothered by Microsoft during the whole membership and exiting was pain free. My experience with the program has been wholly different than yours.
  - rl3 12y ago
    I was just questioning a facet of BizSpark. Taken as a whole, it's a great program. My point was how Visual Studio Community 2013 enhances BizSpark by rendering that particular complaint moot.
- keithg 12y ago
  My guess is that they will soon introduce Xamarin into the MSDN subscription plans. Hook developers with the free tools, and then sell the cross-platform, mobile capabilities of Xamarin as an upgrade. There is already a 20% discount for MSDN premium and ultimate subscribers.
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
melling 12y ago
What's the best option for getting Windows and running it in a VM? I have a Mac but would like to try Visual Studio.
- mateuszf 12y ago
  VirtualBox, but you will still need to buy Windows with license.
  - rikkus 12y ago
    Or wait for Windows 10 when it'll be free for personal users.
    - AlexeyBrin 12y ago
      > Or wait for Windows 10 when it'll be free for personal users. Do you have any reference for this ? Will Microsoft release Windows 10 for free for individuals ?
      - bovermyer 12y ago
        Here's a written reference: http://news.filehippo.com/2014/10/windows-10-will-free-personal-users%E2%80%8F/ http://news.filehippo.com/2014/10/windows-10-will-free-perso... I believe it was also mentioned in the Windows 10 announcement keynote.
    - Encosia 12y ago
      The Windows 10 preview that's out right now works well enough for casual use today. I've been running it on my laptop since it was available and have had a few minor issues, but haven't had any real trouble using it as my primary machine outside the office.
  - ingenieros 12y ago
    If you are still in school you could join their Dreamspark program and get Windows 8 free of charge. If you don't qualify for that you can still get a free developer token by simply joining: https://devcenterbenefits.windows.com https://devcenterbenefits.windows.com
numo16 12y ago
Previous comments: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8595948 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8595948
Ecio78 12y ago
Important info: Q: Who can use Visual Studio Community? A: Here’s how individual developers can use Visual Studio Community: Any individual developer can use Visual Studio Community to create their own free or paid apps. Here’s how Visual Studio Community can be used in organizations: An unlimited number of users within an organization can use Visual Studio Community for the following scenarios: in a classroom learning environment, for academic research, or for contributing to open source projects. For all other usage scenarios: In non-enterprise organizations, up to 5 users can use Visual Studio Community. In enterprise organizations (meaning those with >250 PCs or > $1 Million US Dollars in annual revenue), no use is permitted beyond the open source, academic research, and classroom learning environment scenarios described above.
- Rapzid 12y ago
  I didn't realize it was so permissive for businesses. They are pretty serious about loading up the pipeline.
  - patja 12y ago
    It is less permissive than Express was though, isn't it? I was under the impression there were no restrictions on who could use Express. If Express goes away now, some organizations will be shut out of the Community Edition due to its licensing terms and have to pay.
    - teh_klev 12y ago
      If you're running a "non-enterprise" commercial development team with > 5 full time MS devs and you're building apps of any sort of complexity I suspect you won't be using the Express editions anyway. I'm one of two developers in a company of 12 and Express doesn't really cut the mustard for the stuff we're doing which is only moderately complex. Also bear in mind you're still getting five free installs before having to shell out for your sixth developer. By that time I would also expect that your revenue stream is pretty healthy and the cost of developer tooling, relatively speaking, is a minor cost of doing business.
pherocity_ 12y ago
How is this different from Express versions?
- teh_klev 12y ago
  It's Visual Studio Professional with a different license. Previously you'd have paid through the nose for Visual Studio Pro, now it's free (subject to license conditions).
- guardian5x 12y ago
  The new version is extensible, so you can get access to the over 5,100 extensions in the Visual Studio ecosystem.[1] It’s basically a full version of Visual Studio with no restrictions, except that you can’t use it in an enterprise setting and for teams with more than five people (you can, however, use it for any other kind of commercial and non-commercial project). [1] https://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/ https://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/
- hhandoko 12y ago
  AFAIK, you cannot install extensions or plugins (e.g. ReSharper) in Express version(s).
  - ultramancool 12y ago
    Yeah, this seems to be the major difference. The question for me now is if they'll kill off the Express edition for the next release.
- pjmlp 12y ago
  Besides what is referred in sibling posts: - DirectX debugging tools, including GPGPU - Parallel code debugging - MFC and ATL for those that still need to support such type of applications - 64 bit compilers - DDK integration - Sharepoint integration
  - patja 12y ago
    "Debug / Attach to process" is another really significant feature that Community Edition has that was omitted from Express
atlantic 12y ago
I've been using VS 2013 Community for a few days now, for C#/MVC work. I can't see the difference in relation to the paid version. All the features I habitually make use of are available. A very nice surprise.
- aquadrop 12y ago
  Essentially, they just made Pro version free for small companies and individual developers, and open source of all size.
drapper 12y ago
In my previous experiences with VS Express the installed version took about 10GBs of disk space and included plenty of stuff I didn't want or cared about, like various versions of MS SQL Server, support for VB, different runtimes for .NET, etc. Anyone knows if there's a way to avoid that? I'd like to have "just an IDE", for node and web development.
- stoolpigeon 12y ago
  I set up a VirtualBox instance of Windows 7 with VS 2013 CE - it took up close to 30 gig with nothing else installed.
- tacos 12y ago
  Visual Studio express comes in different editions, so it's unlikely that Visual C# Express installed Visual BASIC, as that was what Visual BASIC Express is. And running the Express for Web 2013 installer says it will use less than 1GB of disk space. What that out of the way, within five seconds of clicking the link here it computed 7GB of disk space. It did not provide options to ignore subcomponents like the full VS 2013/4. My experience is that the MS tools stuff installs and uninstalls cleanly -- and what little it leaves behind are some system components that I'd prefer to have updated and left around anyway. If this freaks you out then that's what VMs are for.
- timrichard 12y ago
  > Anyone knows if there's a way to avoid that? I'd like to have "just an IDE", for node and web development. Sorry to reply on a tangent, but for that sort of development I feel compelled to chip in and recommend WebStorm. It's not free, but ships with a boatload of features that are perfect for NodeJS/WebDev. Like a reverse-debugger that you can use on your serverside as well as front-end code. A real time-saver. http://blog.jetbrains.com/webstorm/2014/04/spy-js-webstorm-secret-service/ http://blog.jetbrains.com/webstorm/2014/04/spy-js-webstorm-s...
  - drapper 12y ago
    I know WebStorm, thanks, wanna try the competition :)
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
jarun 12y ago
Another bloatware from MS :) Seriously... I crawls even on Windows... which you need to buy! ;)
- rootlocus 12y ago
  I haven't realized hackernews makes comments even harder to read once they get enough downvotes. Thanks for writing the lowest rated comment I've seen so far :D
motters 12y ago
That's free as in price, not as in freedom.
- rootlocus 12y ago
  Sure, I'll have a free beer, thank you!
bovermyer 12y ago
A lot of people seem to think that steps like this are just Microsoft catching up. Which, I suppose, they are. But there's something else here too - this kind of thing, where Microsoft is opening up to the open source community, releasing more free tools, releasing more open source projects, all started happening when Satya Nadella took the reins. I think what we're looking at is a CEO that gets it and is trying to move as fast as possible to turn the monolithic company around. That's no mean feat, considering how long Microsoft has gone with everything being behind closed doors in a licensing maze. I for one approve of this trend.
- elboru 12y ago
  Staya Nadella might be accelerating things, but Microsoft has been moving through this direction before Staya's arrival (ASP.NET MVC was open sourced in April 2009), actually I see Staya Nadella taking reins as another step Microsoft took to be more open.
  - dragonwriter 12y ago
    > Staya Nadella might be accelerating things, but Microsoft has been moving through this direction before Staya's arrival (ASP.NET MVC was open sourced in April 2009), Satya Nadella has been a Microsoft exec since 2007, so events in 2009 are not before his arrival, and he was credited for being instrumental in driving this kind of transition in focus before becoming CEO. > actually I see Staya Nadella taking reins as another step Microsoft took to be more open. Sure, it was a vote to double down on the things Nadella was driving as a key leader before becoming CEO.
  - keithg 12y ago
    Scott Hanselman has been an outspoken advocate for this type of move within Microsoft. Hard to say how much influence he has had, but I think it's probably not insignificant.
    - teh_klev 12y ago
      And as I mentioned in another comment, Scott Guthrie. He really seemed to give the Dev Div a boot up the backside when he took over.
ehosca 12y ago
does this require a particular version of the .net framework to be installed?
- numo16 12y ago
  Pretty sure it will install .net 4.5 if you don't have it already during installation.
  - keithg 12y ago
    Yes. All pre-requisites will be downloaded during install.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
_lce0 12y ago
their download button points to an .exe file, no matter with OS are you running
- Maakuth 12y ago
  It's a Windows application though, what are you going to do with it if you can't run exe?
  - _lce0 12y ago
    Exactly. They don't even care of hiding that button for others OS Also, why the hate?
gregd 12y ago
I have often wondered why Microsoft wouldn't just release all versions of VS for free. VS is arguably the go-to tool for developing on the other paid Microsoft products (SQL Server, Azure), so it makes sense that this would attract MORE people to those paid offerings..
markwong 12y ago
not sure if Dephi (Embarcadero) would do the same?
ElongatedTowel 12y ago
Should msvc be the go-to compiler on Windows for C++? I was getting back into the language and was quickly reminded of all the compiler and dependency hazzle, especially when coding for several operating systems. On top of that some older solutions aren't even a good idea anymore, like the whole mingw vs mingw-w64 crap. Seems to me that from a precompiled binary and build management perspective it's just the easiest way to use whatever is best supported on each platform. Which seems to be clang on MacOS, gcc/clang on Linux and msvc on Windows. I had to use chromiumembeddedframework in one project and compiling it with gcc or clang on Windows isn't even a choice. Even if there is a way to get it to work, it's a huge project that takes quite a lot of resources to build. Even if it was easy, prebuild is still a lot faster. With the newest version always beeing free and tools like CMake beeing able to generate projects the only downside I can see is that msvc would dictate the features I'm able to use.

115 points by altaweelali 12y ago

rl3 12y ago

This is a surprising move, won't it result in a large drop in their MSDN subscriber base? I may be wrong here, but as far as I can tell, the only reason to maintain an MSDN subscription for the purposes of Visual Studio (assuming you're eligible to use Visual Studio Community 2013) is if you want the features in editions beyond Professional, you want to be on the bleeding edge, or you want the peripheral perks of subscribing. Personally I think it's a fantastic decision, I'm just surprised Microsoft is actually doing it. Hopefully they will be timely in releasing a Community edition for future versions of Visual Studio. Also, this move is pretty great for startups. I think it also puts BizSpark in a better position. Most early stage startups will no longer have to jump through hoops trying to get into BizSpark, nor prematurely start the clock ticking on that until they're ready. One of my major peeves with BizSpark has been the requirement that your company's public-facing site be more than just a "Coming Soon" page. While I can see the reasoning, it's kind of annoying when you haven't launched yet, you'd prefer to focus on your product, and you want to make said site using Visual Studio anyways.

taspeotis 12y ago
Where I work has 5x complimentary MSDN Premium licenses care of whatever partnership level we have with MS. So if they lost us to the community edition they'd lose $0. (And probably end up saving money, since no Azure developer credits.)
sequence7 12y ago
The main value of an MSDN subscription is all the subscriber downloads and the Azure credits you get. Want to try out or develop against any piece of MS software, just download it from the MSDN portal and off you go. Want to test out provisioning with Azure or fire up a server to test or dev against, just use your Azure credits. You can happily run a couple of small servers with the Azure credits. If you just want Visual Studio you could always buy it on its own for much less than a subscription.
- badgersandjam 12y ago
  I get bugger all Azure credits with Pro. £35 a month which isn't enough to spin up one VM with 1.75Gb of RAM for a month... If I grab MAPS sub and VS community I'm well up on cash.
  - sequence7 12y ago
    £35 a month will get you four A0 Windows/Linux instances or a single Linux A1 and a single Windows/Linux A0 running full time for the month. http://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb/pricing/details/virtual-machines/#Windows http://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb/pricing/details/virtual-mac...
    - badgersandjam 12y ago
      Yeah I know. The A0 with windows server is painful. If I got an A1 for £30 I'd break even on renting a dedicated box. That's the big pain.
gregd 12y ago
"Most early stage startups will no longer have to jump through hoops trying to get into BizSpark, nor prematurely start the clock ticking on that until they're ready. One of my major peeves with BizSpark has been the requirement that your company's public-facing site be more than just a "Coming Soon" page. " I found BizSpark's barrier to entry, practically zero. I applied online and got accepted within hours. I just graduated last month. I never got bothered by Microsoft during the whole membership and exiting was pain free. My experience with the program has been wholly different than yours.
- rl3 12y ago
  I was just questioning a facet of BizSpark. Taken as a whole, it's a great program. My point was how Visual Studio Community 2013 enhances BizSpark by rendering that particular complaint moot.
keithg 12y ago
My guess is that they will soon introduce Xamarin into the MSDN subscription plans. Hook developers with the free tools, and then sell the cross-platform, mobile capabilities of Xamarin as an upgrade. There is already a 20% discount for MSDN premium and ultimate subscribers.

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

melling 12y ago

What's the best option for getting Windows and running it in a VM? I have a Mac but would like to try Visual Studio.

mateuszf 12y ago
VirtualBox, but you will still need to buy Windows with license.
- rikkus 12y ago
  Or wait for Windows 10 when it'll be free for personal users.
  - AlexeyBrin 12y ago
    > Or wait for Windows 10 when it'll be free for personal users. Do you have any reference for this ? Will Microsoft release Windows 10 for free for individuals ?
    - bovermyer 12y ago
      Here's a written reference: http://news.filehippo.com/2014/10/windows-10-will-free-personal-users%E2%80%8F/ http://news.filehippo.com/2014/10/windows-10-will-free-perso... I believe it was also mentioned in the Windows 10 announcement keynote.
  - Encosia 12y ago
    The Windows 10 preview that's out right now works well enough for casual use today. I've been running it on my laptop since it was available and have had a few minor issues, but haven't had any real trouble using it as my primary machine outside the office.
- ingenieros 12y ago
  If you are still in school you could join their Dreamspark program and get Windows 8 free of charge. If you don't qualify for that you can still get a free developer token by simply joining: https://devcenterbenefits.windows.com https://devcenterbenefits.windows.com

numo16 12y ago

Previous comments: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8595948 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8595948

Ecio78 12y ago

Important info: Q: Who can use Visual Studio Community? A: Here’s how individual developers can use Visual Studio Community: Any individual developer can use Visual Studio Community to create their own free or paid apps. Here’s how Visual Studio Community can be used in organizations: An unlimited number of users within an organization can use Visual Studio Community for the following scenarios: in a classroom learning environment, for academic research, or for contributing to open source projects. For all other usage scenarios: In non-enterprise organizations, up to 5 users can use Visual Studio Community. In enterprise organizations (meaning those with >250 PCs or > $1 Million US Dollars in annual revenue), no use is permitted beyond the open source, academic research, and classroom learning environment scenarios described above.

Rapzid 12y ago
I didn't realize it was so permissive for businesses. They are pretty serious about loading up the pipeline.
- patja 12y ago
  It is less permissive than Express was though, isn't it? I was under the impression there were no restrictions on who could use Express. If Express goes away now, some organizations will be shut out of the Community Edition due to its licensing terms and have to pay.
  - teh_klev 12y ago
    If you're running a "non-enterprise" commercial development team with > 5 full time MS devs and you're building apps of any sort of complexity I suspect you won't be using the Express editions anyway. I'm one of two developers in a company of 12 and Express doesn't really cut the mustard for the stuff we're doing which is only moderately complex. Also bear in mind you're still getting five free installs before having to shell out for your sixth developer. By that time I would also expect that your revenue stream is pretty healthy and the cost of developer tooling, relatively speaking, is a minor cost of doing business.

pherocity_ 12y ago

How is this different from Express versions?

teh_klev 12y ago
It's Visual Studio Professional with a different license. Previously you'd have paid through the nose for Visual Studio Pro, now it's free (subject to license conditions).
guardian5x 12y ago
The new version is extensible, so you can get access to the over 5,100 extensions in the Visual Studio ecosystem.[1] It’s basically a full version of Visual Studio with no restrictions, except that you can’t use it in an enterprise setting and for teams with more than five people (you can, however, use it for any other kind of commercial and non-commercial project). [1] https://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/ https://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/
hhandoko 12y ago
AFAIK, you cannot install extensions or plugins (e.g. ReSharper) in Express version(s).
- ultramancool 12y ago
  Yeah, this seems to be the major difference. The question for me now is if they'll kill off the Express edition for the next release.
pjmlp 12y ago
Besides what is referred in sibling posts: - DirectX debugging tools, including GPGPU - Parallel code debugging - MFC and ATL for those that still need to support such type of applications - 64 bit compilers - DDK integration - Sharepoint integration
- patja 12y ago
  "Debug / Attach to process" is another really significant feature that Community Edition has that was omitted from Express

atlantic 12y ago

I've been using VS 2013 Community for a few days now, for C#/MVC work. I can't see the difference in relation to the paid version. All the features I habitually make use of are available. A very nice surprise.

aquadrop 12y ago
Essentially, they just made Pro version free for small companies and individual developers, and open source of all size.

drapper 12y ago

In my previous experiences with VS Express the installed version took about 10GBs of disk space and included plenty of stuff I didn't want or cared about, like various versions of MS SQL Server, support for VB, different runtimes for .NET, etc. Anyone knows if there's a way to avoid that? I'd like to have "just an IDE", for node and web development.

stoolpigeon 12y ago
I set up a VirtualBox instance of Windows 7 with VS 2013 CE - it took up close to 30 gig with nothing else installed.
tacos 12y ago
Visual Studio express comes in different editions, so it's unlikely that Visual C# Express installed Visual BASIC, as that was what Visual BASIC Express is. And running the Express for Web 2013 installer says it will use less than 1GB of disk space. What that out of the way, within five seconds of clicking the link here it computed 7GB of disk space. It did not provide options to ignore subcomponents like the full VS 2013/4. My experience is that the MS tools stuff installs and uninstalls cleanly -- and what little it leaves behind are some system components that I'd prefer to have updated and left around anyway. If this freaks you out then that's what VMs are for.
timrichard 12y ago
> Anyone knows if there's a way to avoid that? I'd like to have "just an IDE", for node and web development. Sorry to reply on a tangent, but for that sort of development I feel compelled to chip in and recommend WebStorm. It's not free, but ships with a boatload of features that are perfect for NodeJS/WebDev. Like a reverse-debugger that you can use on your serverside as well as front-end code. A real time-saver. http://blog.jetbrains.com/webstorm/2014/04/spy-js-webstorm-secret-service/ http://blog.jetbrains.com/webstorm/2014/04/spy-js-webstorm-s...
- drapper 12y ago
  I know WebStorm, thanks, wanna try the competition :)

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

jarun 12y ago

Another bloatware from MS :) Seriously... I crawls even on Windows... which you need to buy! ;)

rootlocus 12y ago
I haven't realized hackernews makes comments even harder to read once they get enough downvotes. Thanks for writing the lowest rated comment I've seen so far :D

motters 12y ago

That's free as in price, not as in freedom.

rootlocus 12y ago
Sure, I'll have a free beer, thank you!

bovermyer 12y ago

A lot of people seem to think that steps like this are just Microsoft catching up. Which, I suppose, they are. But there's something else here too - this kind of thing, where Microsoft is opening up to the open source community, releasing more free tools, releasing more open source projects, all started happening when Satya Nadella took the reins. I think what we're looking at is a CEO that gets it and is trying to move as fast as possible to turn the monolithic company around. That's no mean feat, considering how long Microsoft has gone with everything being behind closed doors in a licensing maze. I for one approve of this trend.

elboru 12y ago
Staya Nadella might be accelerating things, but Microsoft has been moving through this direction before Staya's arrival (ASP.NET MVC was open sourced in April 2009), actually I see Staya Nadella taking reins as another step Microsoft took to be more open.
- dragonwriter 12y ago
  > Staya Nadella might be accelerating things, but Microsoft has been moving through this direction before Staya's arrival (ASP.NET MVC was open sourced in April 2009), Satya Nadella has been a Microsoft exec since 2007, so events in 2009 are not before his arrival, and he was credited for being instrumental in driving this kind of transition in focus before becoming CEO. > actually I see Staya Nadella taking reins as another step Microsoft took to be more open. Sure, it was a vote to double down on the things Nadella was driving as a key leader before becoming CEO.
- keithg 12y ago
  Scott Hanselman has been an outspoken advocate for this type of move within Microsoft. Hard to say how much influence he has had, but I think it's probably not insignificant.
  - teh_klev 12y ago
    And as I mentioned in another comment, Scott Guthrie. He really seemed to give the Dev Div a boot up the backside when he took over.

ehosca 12y ago

does this require a particular version of the .net framework to be installed?

numo16 12y ago
Pretty sure it will install .net 4.5 if you don't have it already during installation.
- keithg 12y ago
  Yes. All pre-requisites will be downloaded during install.
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]

_lce0 12y ago

their download button points to an .exe file, no matter with OS are you running

Maakuth 12y ago
It's a Windows application though, what are you going to do with it if you can't run exe?
- _lce0 12y ago
  Exactly. They don't even care of hiding that button for others OS Also, why the hate?

gregd 12y ago

I have often wondered why Microsoft wouldn't just release all versions of VS for free. VS is arguably the go-to tool for developing on the other paid Microsoft products (SQL Server, Azure), so it makes sense that this would attract MORE people to those paid offerings..

markwong 12y ago

not sure if Dephi (Embarcadero) would do the same?

ElongatedTowel 12y ago

Should msvc be the go-to compiler on Windows for C++? I was getting back into the language and was quickly reminded of all the compiler and dependency hazzle, especially when coding for several operating systems. On top of that some older solutions aren't even a good idea anymore, like the whole mingw vs mingw-w64 crap. Seems to me that from a precompiled binary and build management perspective it's just the easiest way to use whatever is best supported on each platform. Which seems to be clang on MacOS, gcc/clang on Linux and msvc on Windows. I had to use chromiumembeddedframework in one project and compiling it with gcc or clang on Windows isn't even a choice. Even if there is a way to get it to work, it's a huge project that takes quite a lot of resources to build. Even if it was easy, prebuild is still a lot faster. With the newest version always beeing free and tools like CMake beeing able to generate projects the only downside I can see is that msvc would dictate the features I'm able to use.