Will I experience pain if I cut back to Visual Studio Express?

Question

With the upcoming release of Visual Studio 2010, and all the lovely new features in C# 4.0, I would really love to update from 2008. However, over the last few years, I've managed to get student pricing, or even free versions via the MSDN Academic Alliance.

Now I am no longer a student.

I can't seem to justify the $AU500 pricetag of even the Standard version for what is at the moment, essentially a hobby. As much as I may like for it to be, it just isn't paying the bills.

So, I've read on the Microsoft site that there's no non-commercial clause in the Express version EULA which is good because I do the occasional bit of paid work in it. How much is missing from the Express version though, compared to Professional (what I use currently, and what the 2010 beta is)? Am I likely to go through withdrawal pains as I reach for something that just isn't there?

As far as addons go, the only one I've really played with is VisualSVN, and I can live with just using TortoiseSVN manually. Anything else I should be aware of?

Answer 1

Version comparisons can be found here: (For 2008) (Edit: A far more in depth document can be downloaded from here)

The things that leap out to me as features I wouldn't want to be without are:

• Extensibility (no plugins like VisualSVN or Resharper)
• Source Code Control
• Remote debugging
• 64-bit compiler support (x64) (from the first link, though the document implies you can make 64bit apps...)
• SQL Server 2005 integration
• No setup projects (for making MSI installers)
• Limited refactoring
• Some missing debugging tools (especially the threads window)

If you can live without those (and the other limitations that wouldn't bother me personally) then I guess that you'll get by with Express just fine.

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Final thought: Express isn't your only option for free .net development, there is also SharpDevelop which has some advantages (SVN integration, compact framework support) over Express. Though I'm sure it has many limitations too.

Answer 2

Do you do any entrepreneurial work? If you're building the next killer app, check out BizSpark: http://www.microsoft.com/bizspark/

Answer 3

The main thing that is missing is the ability to build an installer for a solution. The work-around is to build the installer using some open source installer for .NET, e.g. WiX.

And multi-language solutions are more cumbersome (e.g. mixed C# and VB.NET).

I use the Professional version, but I didn't experience any problems with opening and building my project/solution in the Express Edition.

Answer 4

Of all things I would probably miss the ability to install extensions. Especially tools like AnkhSVN and TestDriven.NET have grown invaluable to me...

I would seriously consider investing some money in purchasing VS especially if you can get some of that back by using it for jobs.

Maybe switching to Eclipse and Java is an option for you?

EDIT: By the way, investing a few hundred dollars is common among ex-students. If you were a designer you would probably have to invest $1000 on Adobe software.

Answer 5

You won't be able to have solutions with multiple project types (so no mixed language solutions), or solution folders either.

Answer 6

There is new program now available from Microsoft to allow web developers to access the Microsoft Stack similar to the BizSpark program.

It is called Website Spark. VS 2008 Professional Edition and SQL Server 2008 Web Editon are some of the tools available through the program.