Visual Studio 2008 Professional vs VS 2008 Team System

Question

I've been using the trial edition of Visual Studio 2008 Team System to develop projects and work with my client's Team Foundation Server. I am using the Team Explorer integration / source control plugin.

My trial is expiring and I'm having trouble finding information on what exactly I need to purchase. I don't need to actually run a TFS server myself, but I do need the ability to connect to my clients and get/put files, and the integration with Team Explorer in VS is really nice, hence I'd rather not have to use an external 3rd party tool.

Do I need Team System to accomplish this or does Visual Studio 2008 Professional have the same TFS Plugin, and if so does it work the same?

I can't believe I'm having such a hard time finding the differences between the versions... if anyone has a good resource that'd be nice before I shell out $3,000 on something I don't need. I develop mainly ASP.NET Solutions if that matters. Thanks!

Answer 1

Visual Studio 2008 Product Comparison Guide

I don't need to actually run a TFS server myself, but I do need the ability to connect to my clients

Whoever is running TFS should procure CALs (Client Access License) so that any client that works with this server is covered. I believe you buy them separately per client machine (somewhat around 400$ each). Also VS Team System editions have one or two CALs included. That may be or may not be worth it for you.

And yes, you can access TFS from VS 2008 Pro, just need to install the integration plugin.

Answer 2

I don't know if that is possible at all for you, but if you can, I would wait for Visual Studio 2010 (to be released in march 2010). Not only is it a better product than VS2008 but also they have simplified the versioning/licensing part, also Team Foundation Server 2010 Basic may be suitable for your source control needs.

If you want to take a look, you can download the beta versions of VS2010 and TFS2010.