visual studio express versus vs 2008 for my partner

Question

i have been building websites using vs 2008 (mostly asp.net mvc, jquery and webforms). my partner wants to start helping me out but he doesn't have vs 2008.

our options are:

1. him to buy vs 2008
2. him to use vs express (http://www.microsoft.com/express/)

i have never used #2, so i wanted to get feedback from anyone on the following:

1. Can you work in a team where some folks use vs 2008 and some use vs express.
2. Any other suggestions or roadblocks that i am going to run into with this strategy.
3. Are there any particular features that #2 simply can't do that will be critical to my development above.

Answer 1

I would recommend VS express until you need one of the features that requires you to buy 2008. No sense spending the money on something you may never use.

VS Express is a perfectly capable IDE.

Also, you can work in VS express and 2008 interchangeably.

Here is a short Description of the differences of VS IDE versions.

Answer 2

Express should be able to get you going. The major limitation of the express edition is that it doesn't allow add-ins. Also, not all project types are supported in all editions. If you are mixing languages or working on both winforms and web apps, it would get annoying b/c he'd have to keep switching between express editions.

Otherwise you should be ok.

Answer 3

I use VS express at home and pro at work. The only thing I've come across in express that bugs me is that it doesn't support addins, so I can't get any decent source control integration.

The express editions don't have all the same templates and project types, but you don't really need them, they are just there to speed things up in the other editions, you can still create the projects, but you have to create an empty project and change the settings manually.

Here's a quick summary of the differences, and here's a 35 page crazy detailed one.