Is VS 2008 Standard worth it?

Question

My dev environment now consists of:

• vc# express / v web dev express
• NUnit
• Tortoise for Subversion
• SqlYog for MySql
• Custom automated copy/paste deployment

I'd like to use:

• TestDriven.NET (looked at pex too and it seems interesting)
• VisualSVN or AnkhSVN
• Not sure if VS will have integrated control of mysql.
• Deployment projects

Just to make things quicker and easier on myself... but is it worth it to pay out the $250 for a VS license (note: my employer is footing the bill, but try not to let that alter your judgement too much).

Answer 1

Bear in mind that you can buy 'upgrade' editions of VS and upgrade from the Express versions (or even Eclipse). So the list price you'd be looking at is USD199, with the real price more like USD160.

Given that it's a price vs features trade-off, this might be useful.

My personal advice would be not to mess about with toy freebie editions if you're trying to earn money for yourself or anyone else.

Answer 2

It depends on the application you'll create. The express edition won't let you combine different projects of different type in one solution. With a Visual Studio Professional you'll be able to debug an assembly from a C# class with another project within your web application.

If your project need only to be in one type of language than express is ok.

But I agree, if you will make money, a license is the way to go.

Answer 3

Visual Studio 2008 Standard has everything a traditional developer needs.

I use Professional at work and Standard at home (which I bought with the Expression Studio package - damn good deal). Unless you're wanting multi-process stuff, Std is perfectly adequate. I have mine using Silverlight Tools, and it "talks to" Blend and VisualSVN (MUCH better than AnkhSVN) perfectly well. It works with database servers (but doesn't debug MS-SQL), I imagine you'd have to get a MySQL provider for this element to work - which I guess you'd need anyway if you're working in MySQL on .NET.

Answer 4

Yes. Without at least VS Standard, you can't use all the cool add-ins that make Visual Studio so powerful.

Answer 5

The express versions also do not allow you to create windows services - I changed to professional and now I can do that. You can still do it in express, however, you have to set up the project manually and know a little bit more about what you are doing.

Answer 6

I'd suggest that you wait until VS 2010 comes out, as there are so many new improvements, like context sensitive help... was completely revamped. Hold in there!

Answer 7

Since your employer is paying for it, I assume this is for business purposes. Therefore, the question is whether you're more valuable to him with VS 2008 standard or $250?

Assuming you're spending a lot of time developing, the answer is almost certainly yes. If you make $50,000 a year, spend half your time developing, and the standard version improves your efficiency by 1%, that's a one-year break-even. (Actually better than that; if you make $50K a year you cost your employer more like $70K-$100K, depending on circumstances and accounting.)

It's almost always worthwhile to buy good tools for your workers, and software development tools are usually very inexpensive compared to software tools for other professions.

If you were developing at home, it would be a more difficult and subjective question, but since you're programming to generate revenue for somebody it's a question of dollars, and the dollars are overwhelmingly in favor of spending the money.

Answer 8

I would suggest going the route of purchasing the VS license and then going out and getting reshaper from jetbrains.com

Reshaper has built in unit test, refactoring, code completion, templates, ...

along with that you could use AnkhSVN as it is free, personally I have not found Visual SVN is worth the cost at even $50.