Visual Studio 2010 is about to come in few months (April 12th) and I have been receiving many, many, many questions around the new product family and the transition benefits.I’ll answer some of them in this post and will probably update it later if I have additional recurring questions.
So before jumping on the product capabilities I want to spend 1 minute on Why Microsoft is changing the line-up.As you already know, Visual Studio is the main developer tool to build software applications on the Microsoft platform. At the end of the day, we don’t really care about the IDE but more about the solution you are building, Visual Studio will come automatically if you have decided to use part of the Microsoft platform (from .NET to C++, Office to Sharepoint, embedded to Azure….).People were a bit confused between the different editions of Visual Studio. As an example, does a developer need Visual Studio professional (the main IDE to write code) or a Team Developer? A developer may need some testing or modelling capabilities only available in the Team Test or Team Architect edition, so what is the recommended SKU ? As Visual Studio 2010 is extending the capabilities (test management, code visualisation ….) the right move was not to add more editions but to simplify the product family. We’ll have 3 levels of Visual Studio
You can notice that no edition contains “Team System” in the description or a job role (like Developer, Tester …).The idea is that any edition can suit your needs. It’s up to you to look at the capabilities, what you want to achieve and your team maturity to point out the right level.
go on http://www.microsoft.com/australia/visualstudio/products/2010/default.mspx for a full description (click on “compare 2010 products”)
Visual Studio 2010 professional with MSDN will include
I would describe VS2010 Pro w/ MSDN as the “basic” edition because writing code and managing the project (source code, bug, tracking …) is the minimum you should do when building a software application
Visual Studio 2010 Premium with MSDN will include
This list of capabilities is not exhaustive but it gives you enough information to see that Visual Studio 2010 Premium is the “by default” edition for a developer. That why I would qualify this edition as “standard”
Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate with MSDN will include
As a developer may need some testing or code visualisation capabilities, Visual Studio Ultimate is not only for the testers and the architects but the developers too. Again think about capabilities and not edition “per role”. That why I would describe Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate as the advanced edition.
Ok so we are moving from Visual Studio 2008 with the different Team roles, Visual studio pro and MSDN editions into 3 level of Visual Studio 2010
But what happen at launch time (April 12th)? What is this “Ultimate offer”?If you have an active license of (active means the SA – aka MSDN – is active and not expired)
This "Auto upgrade" means you will get an edition with many more features than you have with your current Visual Studio edition for the duration of your subscription.Different scenario to optimize this “Ultimate offer” - transition benefitsScenario 1 - Do I have the right level of Visual Studio to maximise the benefits of the transition?
So, if you licensing model support the step-up mechanism (Open Value, Select and EA), please check if you should step up to the next level. Look at all your licenses and make a decision before April 12th (specifically for Open and Select customers)
Scenario 2 – anticipate your needsLooking at the next 12 to 24 months, if you think you will use more of the MS platform or your team will get bigger (including dev's, testers and architects), you should plan for your growth by anticipating your needs. Even if you will not use the additional licenses at launch, it will be a cost effective solution to benefit from this automatic upgrade.
Additional information
Current Benefit Benefit when Visual Studio 2010 launched (April 12th 2010) Visual Studio 2008 Professional with MSDN Premium Visual Studio 2010 Professional with MSDN Premium This subscription benefit level will be maintained for Certified Partners, though it will no longer be available for sale in the Visual Studio 2010 product offering. Visual Studio Team System 2008 Development Edition with MSDN Premium Visual Studio 2010 Premium with MSDNFor more information: https://partner.microsoft.com/download/global/40121025
Current Benefit
Benefit when Visual Studio 2010 launched (April 12th 2010)
Visual Studio 2008 Professional with MSDN Premium
Visual Studio 2010 Professional with MSDN Premium This subscription benefit level will be maintained for Certified Partners, though it will no longer be available for sale in the Visual Studio 2010 product offering.
Visual Studio Team System 2008 Development Edition with MSDN Premium
Visual Studio 2010 Premium with MSDN
Active licenses of Visual Studio Team Suite 2008 with MSDN will be converted to Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate with MSDN at launch time
Please contact me for any additional informationEmail : jihadda@microsoft.com
Cheers,J.
Thanks for the detailed info.
By any chance, do you know if any RTM edition of the upcoming VS2010 will be available to Technet subscribers?
Hi John,
Technet will not include any edition of Visual Studio.
the big difference between TECHNET and MSDN is that TECHNET is for evaluating products, you can't test or build solutions with the products coming from the TECHNET subscription. That's why Visual Studio is not and will not be included.
check this link to compare MSDN and TECHNET
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-au/subscriptions/dd362338.aspx
it explicitly say that testing and development are for MSDN only.
J.
What of those with current Team Suite 2008? Does a 2008 Team Suite convert to 2010 Ultimate?
Hi Grant,
Active licences of Visual Studio Team Suite 2008 with MSDN will be converted to Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate with MSDN at launch time
Will there be an edition of Visual Studio 2010 available without an MSDN subscription? (Like you can currently buy Standard or Professional without MSDN.)
Hi Brian,
of course, you will be able to buy the stand alone edition of Visual Studio 2010 professional (i.e. without MSDN)
Am I correct in deducing that customers of VS 2008 professional with MSDN professional will actually be *downgraded* automatically? VS 2010 Professional seems to be missing some features that are included in VS 2008 professional, for instance the basic unit testing support and some of the database support. Of course a more detailed description of what is included in VS 2010 professional may help clarify this issue...
Hi Luc,
at launch, active licences of Visual Studio 2008 Professional with MSDN Pro will be converted to Visual Studio 2010 Professional with MSDN.
This new edition is equivalent (in capabilities and benefits) of Visual Studio 2008 Professional with MSDN Professional.
So you will have Unit test or database support.
For a complete description of what is included in VS 2010 Pro, please visit the following link and click on "Compare 2010 Products"
http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/en-us/products/2010/default.mspx
Visual Studio 2010 Professional with MSDN will contain additional benefits such as
- a full licence of TFS
- a CAL to TFS
so, even if you have no "auto upgrade" from VS Pro 2008 with MSDN Pro, you will have the same capabilities plus a full access to TFS. If you licencing model support the "step up" mechanism (Open Value, select or EA), you can convert your MSDN Pro into a MSDN Premium edition to maximise the benefits of the transition.
thx,
In Nov 2008 I installed VS2008 Team Suite trial edn to investigate the web and load testing.
Then I heard of the ultimate offer.
At work I renewed my VS 2008 Team Arch Edn MSDN on 31st Dec 2009.
The trail edition expires end of Jan, so is there a bridge whereby I can use web and load testing in VS2008 until the launch? Is using the VS 2010 beta the only way?
Thanks,
Alex
I'm extremely disappointed with the transition offer for Certified Partners. As an ISV Certifier Partner, I would have thought it would have been in Microsoft's interest to provide its ISV partners with the same "Ultimate Offer" as the others. - Darren
Hi Daren,
As an ISV partner you will continue to receive the same value of Microsoft Development Tools benefits in your Microsoft Partner Network (+ TFS as part of VS 2010 Premium).
I hope you realize the value (and savings) of the products you are eligible to use as an ISV partner.
Building software solution is your main activity and I wish you company is as profitable as possible. Visual Studio is probably your main IDE to support your development effort. Thought the Microsoft certification, Microsoft is providing you free access to 10 (up to 35 if you’re Gold) Visual Studio Team Developer (soon 2010 Premium) licenses. This is a great value as building solution on Visual Studio is your core business.
What you need to do is to complement the tooling if you are interested in the testing or code visualization/modeling capabilities. You can do that at any time using the 20% promotion or enjoy the benefits of the transition at launch time (April 12th 2010).
The real cost when building software solutions (as an ISV or a “final” user) is not the software but the people. Not investing in the proper tools will not help being more successful or reduce the total cost. Do you know that the average cost of a developer is around 1 000$ per day (including position and salary), so spending an extra 4 000$ for a proper tool is not even 2% of the developer annual cost (1 000$ * 220 days -> 220 000$).
cheers,
To alex
"
If I understand correctly, you have now a licence of VS 2008 Team Architect (renewed in Dec 2009) but you would like to use the web and load testing capabilities too.
two options
- you can use the VS2010 Beta 2 and then RC and wait for the RTM (April 12th 2010) to transition your Team Architect into VS 2010 Ultimate
- you can step up your Team Architect into Team Suite now and use the full Team Suite 2008 capabilities
My current subscription (Team Developer) gives me the TFS Workgroup edition which comes with 5 CAL. With the ultimate offer, I'm given the full TFS, but now only 1 CAL.
So do I to buy 4 CAL for TFS 2010 for my 4 "non Visual Studio" users that access the sharepoint site adding Work Items, viewing reports and so on?
Regards,
Kenneth
As a developer in a small team, I only need the IDE, the C++ compiler and the profiler (all of them look really impressive on the release candidate, by the way!) - for everything else we already have a solution. Is there a way to get it cheaper than buying/upgrading to a premium edition with a MSDN subscription? I already own VS 2008 Professional without MSDN.
I understand your approach of dividing the features into three classes, it's just that I don't agree on which features are "basic" and which are "advanced". And also the price difference of 600% for going from "basic" (pro without MSDN) to "standard" (premium with MSDN) seems a bit high to me.
Hi Robert,
in VS 2010 Premium you have more capabilities than the only profiler (DB management, code metric, Expression ....).
If you are just looking at VS Pro (IDE for C++ development) + compiler then you are not making the most of the VS 2010 Premium edition and the value proposition is lower for you.
I understand your comment but if you look at the time you will spend in analysing the code (outside of VS 2010 Premium code analysis), attaching the code quality check to the build and check-in or integrating open-source solutions ... you'll probably be at a higher cost then purchasing VS 2010 Premium.
Remember that your time is the most costly ressource (US$ 1000 per day ? - including salary and position) and the tools are just here to support you.