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It could only happen on a Friday ... MS wants you to stop using their IDE

At 5:53 PM on Jun 1, 2007, Alex Blewitt wrote:

Microsoft are apparently trying to stop a useful developer utility from being included in their entry-level free IDE. What they don't seem to realise is that winning developer's hearts and minds at the early stage of their development is key to capturing them for the next several years; witness the loyalty that the Java IDEs have (regardless of their actual merits).

In this case, it's even more funny; their free-level tool you aren't allowed to write or sell plugins for, with the idea that if you wanted to install plugins into the free tool then you'd have to pay to upgrade.

Call me biased if you will, but developing a platform for which you're only allowed to plugin if you pay for it is commercial suicide. You immediately kill off any potentially useful tools (such as this one, which helps testing in studio) and alienate precisely the kind of people that you should be targetting for the next crop of developer fan-base. Not the least of this is a PR disaster, and it goes to show the level of contempt that Studio has for its userbase and for what it's capable of.

Compare that with Mik's blog entry about the openness of Eclipse (and others) in putting together Mylar. In fact, the platform is so open you don't even need to be doing anything IDE related; you can plug in Skype into Eclipse if you really want to.

So, if you're saddled with Visual Studio, come over to a real IDE. You'll never look back.

4 replies so far ( Post your own)

Reply 1. At 5:30 AM on Jun 2, 2007, Genady Beryozkin wrote:

Re: It could only happen on a Friday ... MS wants you to stop using their I

I'm not fully familiar with MS test products (somewhere in the team suite?) but I can see why they want to force people to upgrade to their pricey solution instead of using some third party's extension.

In the past I've considered writing some VS add-ons. This case is very discouraging... I think I'll better stick with Eclipse

Genady Beryozkin
Get the RMI Plugin for Eclipse

Reply 2. At 5:06 PM on Jun 2, 2007, Neil Bartlett wrote:

Re: It could only happen on a Friday ... MS wants you to stop using their I

Interesting. I blogged on this a while ago, saying I simply could not fathom why VS.NET is not free. After all, Microsoft understands the importance of "developers, developers, developers..." right?

I had some responses from .NET people saying that really you don't need the full VS.NET, because the Express editions contain as much functionality as you would need, e.g. as much functionality as the Eclipse SDK out of the box. They compared "full" VS.NET with a product like JBuilder, which adds commercial tools (and price tag) onto the free Eclipse base.

Anyway, this news clearly shows the fallacy of that argument. The problem is, "free" (in both senses) will always go against the grain for Microsoft. They insist on monetizing everything directly.

Another problem with the Express editions is that they are supposedly "tools for the hobbyist, novice or student developer." Sorry, but I am none of those things. Just because I refuse to pay Microsoft for the privilege of enhancing their ecosystem, it doesn't mean I'm an amateur.

I love Eclipse because it doesn't patronize me.

Reply 3. At 5:32 PM on Jun 2, 2007, Genady Beryozkin wrote:

Re: It could only happen on a Friday ... MS wants you to stop using their I

Some additional fun bits from their VS Express license:

Distribution Restrictions. You may not distribute Distributable Code, other than code listed in OTHER-DIST.TXT files, to run on a platform other than the Windows platform;

MANDATORY ACTIVATION. THE SOFTWARE MAY REQUIRE ACTIVATION TO PREVENT ITS UNLICENSED USE. IF SO, YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO USE THE SOFTWARE IF YOU DO NOT ACTIVATE IT AS DESCRIBED DURING INSTALLATION. You can activate the software by Internet or telephone; Internet and telephone service charges may apply. Some changes to your computer components or the software may require you to reactivate the software. THE SOFTWARE WILL REMIND YOU TO ACTIVATE UNTIL YOU DO.

SQL SERVER BENCHMARK TESTING. You must obtain Microsoft?s prior written approval to disclose to a third party the results of any benchmark test of the SQL Server software that accompanies this software.

Compare that with Eclipse:

... Each Contributor hereby grants Recipient a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free copyright license to reproduce, prepare derivative works of, publicly display, publicly perform, distribute and sublicense the Contribution ..., if any, and such derivative works, in source code and object code form.

Genady Beryozkin
Get the RMI Plugin for Eclipse

Reply 4. At 10:07 AM on Jun 5, 2007, Riyad Kalla wrote: