Portable /Virtual / Zero-impact installation and usage of Visual Studio 2008

A:

Why not go open source?

Use monodevelop either on windows or on linux - with linux you can create a live CD with all the pre-requisites.

And if monodevelop is not good enough, you can try running VS Express under Wine in linux, it is one of the applications that is most tested/used.

Oded 2010-02-17 21:03:57

monodevelop is not an option, as my students will most probably be windows guys. So I will not challenge them with Linux for the moment, but let them use something that they could try at home too.Thanks for the tip on VS Express with Wine. But, how to deploy this setting on 12 machines. Would you think that there is a live CD with Wine and VS Express installed? Or a VM? I never used Wine before, so this seems a bit complicated to me.

Marcel 2010-02-17 22:43:14

Sorry, I overread "on windows". Can I target windows with monodevelop?

Marcel 2010-02-17 22:49:35

@Marcel - MonoDevelop is multi platform. You can target Windows, macs and Linux.

Oded 2010-02-18 08:18:32

A:

Why not build an image based on the base Windows Server 2008 install Amazon Machine Image (AMI) and rent out Amazon Elastic Cloud computers? Students could remote dekstop in using low bandwidth. The costs seem compellingly low per hour. This requires you to not have to buy any licenses, just CPU hours and they are relatively low (~12 cents per hour per student).

http://aws.amazon.com/windows/

Nissan Fan 2010-02-17 21:06:55

Never heard of that before. Seems to be cool, I'll check this out! Thanx

Marcel 2010-02-17 22:38:07

+1 A:

Build a VM and deploy VMWare Player on the machines.

And, Yes there should still be vs08 team system eval vpc images around. Not express.

Be sure to fire the image up and get it set up the way you want, then you can copy it onto each machine with a usb drive. VPC is free as well.

Sky Sanders 2010-02-17 21:09:11

VM's: Yes, but what about the licenses for the OS in the VM. Should I not care?TeamSystem: Are there any large differences between the normal VS? Do you happen to have a link?

Marcel 2010-02-17 22:40:12

@Marcel, well, if you use the vpc image linked in my answer, no licensing issues at all. point and shoot. r.e. r.e. normal and vsts, is moot point now, but just having an overwhelming amount of menus and options might be intimidating.

Sky Sanders 2010-02-17 22:44:52

@marcel, guess they are driving traffic to vs10. the vsts 2008 images are still available. if fixed the link.

Sky Sanders 2010-02-17 22:52:02

Accepted, because this answers the original question best. Thanks Sky.

Marcel 2010-02-18 05:50:28

+2 A:

Do you really have to use Visual Studio? A good alternative is SharpDevelop which is free, and I believe can just be copied to the machine without installation.

The problem with using Visual Studio is that its installation is very long and arduous, so you are quite correct in not wanting to install it on all of those machines.

I suggest you use SharpDevelop in the course, but also show people that there is a free version of Visual Studio so they can choose which one to use themselves.

adrianbanks 2010-02-17 21:09:19

Hey this looks cool. I heard of SharpDevelop before, but I thought that was just some freak stuff. But this seems to be serious. I'll try this out!

Marcel 2010-02-17 22:46:38

+1 for xcopy deploy. But when it comes to introducing someone to programming C# I feel it would be better to use the best tools and most likely the tool they are going to use if they decide to take it on. I have used monodevelop, sharpdevelop, intellij, eclipse and notepad and hands down the best experience, even with its sharp edges and annoyances, is to be had in VS. 2 pesos.

Sky Sanders 2010-02-17 22:55:11

@Sky: I'd tend to agree, but there are obvious problems with the installation of Visual Studio for Marcel's specific case. Taking the path of least resistance (with SharpDevelop) is a compromise, and SharpDevelop is visually quite similar to Visual Studio so it should not be too foreign to the people on the course. That's why I did recommend additionally pointing out that there is a free version of Visual Studio.

adrianbanks 2010-02-17 23:01:10

+1 for you. I accepted Sky's Answer because it is the best to the original question. However, I will give SharpDevelop a try, and probably I will use this over the VSTS. Thanks for the hint.

Marcel 2010-02-18 05:52:35

In the meantime I have tried SharpDevelop an I am REALLY IMPRESSED. It even has intellisense. And it understands the VS2008 Project and Solution files! These guys have done a great job.A little, but only a little lack is the not-available Ghost Doc.

Marcel 2010-04-29 18:47:09

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Portable /Virtual / Zero-impact installation and usage of Visual Studio 2008

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