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Visual Studio 2015 Community is a full-featured world-class IDE that's now free (edit: for OSS or Companies with <$1M Revenue) - which I've now moved to exclusi

by mythz 11y ago

Visual Studio 2015 Community is a full-featured world-class IDE that's now free (edit: for OSS or Companies with <$1M Revenue) - which I've now moved to exclusively for all my .NET projects. I also swear by ReSharper (R#) which IMO pays itself in productivity immensely, so the cost isn't an issue for me. I also use IntelliJ IDEA, WebStorm and Android Studio and IMO they don't match the productivity of VS.NET + R# combo, which I'm putting down to C# being a more enjoyable and toolable language. It's important to notice that MS have recently shifted their business model around VS.NET where now what used to be the VS 2012/13 Professional edition is now the VS 2015 Community edition which is now free - they're removing the cost barrier into VS.NET (and forgoing VS.NET Revenues) to get more developers onto the .NET platform which will translate into more Windows Server Licenses and Azure revenues. With this shift, IMO it's fair to assume that if it wasn't for the decade of Windows-specific legacy native code that's in VS.NET they would've also given it away for free on other platforms as well. VS Code is free IDE that they're going to support cross-platform, i.e. I don't think they want to intentionally cripple VS Code to force it as a Gateway drug into VS.NET since that's not their primary revenue strategy for .NET - getting more developers on .NET is. At the same time I won't recommend VS Code until it's Open Source, you're better off using Atom + Omnisharp combo which is OSS and safe from abandonment and IMO protects end-users should they start loading it with crapware or otherwise become poor stewards of the project, since a fork would be possible.

StevePerkins 11y ago
> what used to be the VS 2012/13 Professional edition is now the VS 2015 Community edition which is now free Not true. If you are using Visual Studio professionally, rather than for your own personal educational tinkering, then you're only eligible for Community if your company has less than $1 million in revenue. In almost twenty years, I have never worked for a company that would qualify for that condition (and this includes multiple startups). Even if your company is small enough to qualify, then no more than 5 developers are allowed to use Community at once. See section 1(b): https://www.visualstudio.com/support/legal/mt171547 https://www.visualstudio.com/support/legal/mt171547 If you are currently using Community for professional work... then either you're an independent freelancer, or else are working for the absolute tiniest of unprofitable companies, or else are violating Microsoft's license terms because you don't understand what they are (like most people, it seems). Visual Studio Professional is very much still a SKU (https://www.visualstudio.com/vs-2015-product-editions https://www.visualstudio.com/vs-2015-product-editions).
- dragonwriter 11y ago
  > If you are using Visual Studio professionally, rather than for your own personal educational tinkering, then you're only eligible for Community if your company has less than $1 million in revenue. Or if it, as many companies with more than $1 million in revenue do, develops open source software. > If you are currently using Community for professional work... then either you're an independent freelancer, or else are working for the absolute tiniest of unprofitable companies, or else are violating Microsoft's license terms because you don't understand what they are. Or you are a professional developer working on software which is licensed under an OSI-approved open-source license.
  - StevePerkins 11y ago
    Yes, yes, Richard Stallman... I saw your other reply already. :) While a valid point, surely you would acknowledge that it is a fairly small niche case? I imagine that overwhelmingly, the more common scenario is people using Community to work on non-open source software, simply because they don't fully understand the license terms (or don't care).
- mythz 11y ago
  > then either you're an independent freelancer, or else are working for the absolute tiniest of unprofitable companies No it just means your Startup has <$1M Revenue - there are a number of early Startups that comfortably fit within that threshold.
- _pmf_ 11y ago
  The myth that Community Edition is suitable for general commercial work is shockingly strong.
zamalek 11y ago
> ReSharper (R#) FYI: http://vsrefactoringessentials.com/ http://vsrefactoringessentials.com/ Could be said to be an open source 'replacement' for R#. I've only been using it for a short while and while it doesn't do as much as R#, it also doesn't have the performance cost of R# (which is downright obnoxious if you are used to working without R#).

by mythz 11y ago

StevePerkins 11y ago

> what used to be the VS 2012/13 Professional edition is now the VS 2015 Community edition which is now free Not true. If you are using Visual Studio professionally, rather than for your own personal educational tinkering, then you're only eligible for Community if your company has less than $1 million in revenue. In almost twenty years, I have never worked for a company that would qualify for that condition (and this includes multiple startups). Even if your company is small enough to qualify, then no more than 5 developers are allowed to use Community at once. See section 1(b): https://www.visualstudio.com/support/legal/mt171547 https://www.visualstudio.com/support/legal/mt171547 If you are currently using Community for professional work... then either you're an independent freelancer, or else are working for the absolute tiniest of unprofitable companies, or else are violating Microsoft's license terms because you don't understand what they are (like most people, it seems). Visual Studio Professional is very much still a SKU (https://www.visualstudio.com/vs-2015-product-editions https://www.visualstudio.com/vs-2015-product-editions).

dragonwriter 11y ago
> If you are using Visual Studio professionally, rather than for your own personal educational tinkering, then you're only eligible for Community if your company has less than $1 million in revenue. Or if it, as many companies with more than $1 million in revenue do, develops open source software. > If you are currently using Community for professional work... then either you're an independent freelancer, or else are working for the absolute tiniest of unprofitable companies, or else are violating Microsoft's license terms because you don't understand what they are. Or you are a professional developer working on software which is licensed under an OSI-approved open-source license.
- StevePerkins 11y ago
  Yes, yes, Richard Stallman... I saw your other reply already. :) While a valid point, surely you would acknowledge that it is a fairly small niche case? I imagine that overwhelmingly, the more common scenario is people using Community to work on non-open source software, simply because they don't fully understand the license terms (or don't care).
mythz 11y ago
> then either you're an independent freelancer, or else are working for the absolute tiniest of unprofitable companies No it just means your Startup has <$1M Revenue - there are a number of early Startups that comfortably fit within that threshold.
_pmf_ 11y ago
The myth that Community Edition is suitable for general commercial work is shockingly strong.

zamalek 11y ago

> ReSharper (R#) FYI: http://vsrefactoringessentials.com/ http://vsrefactoringessentials.com/ Could be said to be an open source 'replacement' for R#. I've only been using it for a short while and while it doesn't do as much as R#, it also doesn't have the performance cost of R# (which is downright obnoxious if you are used to working without R#).