Our Web Team is in the process of buying licenses for Visual Studio 2008 (Team System). We are not sure yet if we need the Development Edition or Team Suite.
Is it worth paying 5000$ to get the tools not included in the Development Edition: profiling, static analysis, load testing, database testing, etc?
I know it depends on your needs but what are you guys using? Any experience to share regarding the use of these editions?
My recommendation would be to trial it first if you can.
I currently use the plain old professional edition of vs2008. I have used the team suite in the past though. Yeah, some of the tools are handy. (Some of them - like static analysis is pretty much just a GUI and some config on top of tools like fxcop), but like you say it depends on your needs as to whether you'll use them. If you can get an evaluation and try them out first to check out their usefulness.
None of them are anything radically different from other tools available. There are lots of performance profilers and load testers on the market that are equally as good, so don't feel like you have to go with the ones MS ships with the team suite if you don't have definite uses for them.
Hi, as you say the answer depends on what are your needs but if you need to use only one or two features only there is not point paying for all.For example if you are going to use only profiling it is less expensive to buy a tool that like Red Gate's Dot Trace. There is much to consider. Best Regards, Iordan
I have Visual Studio Team Suite but I can honestly say I haven't ever used anything you don't get in the Express Edition. But then, I'm writing games on my own in C++ so I have little need for load testing or database testing, I have my own profiling tools, and I don't have anyone to collaborate with. Note that I got Team Suite for free as a Microsoft employee; I don't just enjoy wasting money ;)
What I'm trying to say is that it depends so much on your own situation that any answer we give is going to be more or less useless!
I'm on the BizSpark program, so I get any edition for free, for three years. At the end of three years, I pay $100. I'm using 2008 Professional at the moment.