Simon Thorneycroft and Jonathan Hodgson

Confusion over which Visual Studio 2005 you want or need?

Giving too much choice often confuses consumers, do you need Windows XP Home, Professional, Tablet PC or Media Center edition? Looks like it might be set to get worse with Vista.

Seems the same can be true for developers when trying to work out which version of Visual Studio 2005 to buy.

Lots of corporate developers seem to be wondering which of the many Visual Studio 2005 SKUs they need. If you are already using NUnit, TestDriven.NET, NAnt, etc. and you aren't planning on implementing Team Foundation Server then do you really need Visual Studio Team Edition for Software Developers? Yes, you would get the code profiling, static analysis, unit testing, code coverage and Office development tools, plus a CAL (client access license) for use with Team Foundation server. But haven't most .NET development shops got most of those bases covered especially source control via CVS/Perforce/ClearCase/Subversion - So Visual Studio 2005 Professional would do fine.

So looking at the prices:

Visual Studio 2005 Team Suite with MSDN Premium Sub = £7341 (Full) / £2,348 (Upgrade)
Visual Studio 2005 Team Edition for Software Developers with MSDN Premium Sub = £3670 / £1543
Visual Studio 2005 Pro with MSDN Premium Sub = £1677 / £1342
Visual Studio 2005 Pro with MSDN Pro Sub = £805 / £536
Visual Studio 2005 Pro = £536 / £368
Visual Studio 2005 Standard = £201 / £134

Visual Studio 2005 Team Foundation Server = £1878 per server + £335 per CAL
 
Select/Volume license agreements might make it a bit cheaper, normally a 15%-20% discount.

In fact if you aren't targeting Sql Server 2005, you might actually get away with just Visual Studio 2005 Standard; which removes remote debugging (can only do local), Sql Server 2005 Developer Edition (just get express), Server explorer window (which no-one ever uses), Sql Server 2005 Integration in IDE, MSI setup projects (only get ClickOnce). Now remove the need for refactoring support and class diagrams and we're nearly back to the express editions!

Think alot of people are interested in Team Foundation Server and what it does, but worry about the cost and complexity; you can download the pre-configured beta Virtual PC images and I'm pretty sure MSDN Premium gives 5 user license to tempt small teams to try it out.

What do other think, should Microsoft have given developers all these different choices? Which versions are you using at home and work?

ps. Don't forget the express editions are currently free and if you download the full ISO images of the express versions you don't need to register them before use.