Visual Studio Express...free!

Dan Fernandez, lead product manager for the Visual Studio Express product line has confirmed today that Visual Studio Express (in all its incarnations) will remain free. Excellent move:

"You’ve helped make Visual Studio Express a runaway hit, and we’re proud to announce that in the five months since its launch, Express has been downloaded over 5 million times!"

5 million downloads? Wow. Dan also has links to some new starter kit content worth checking out.

Even cooler? The following was pointed out by one of the comments on the Beta News article. From the Express Edition FAQ:

"4. Can I use Express Editions for commercial use?

Yes, there are no licensing restrictions for applications built using the Express Editions."

Whee!

And yet another thing to note. If you're looking for a free database to program against, then be reminded that you can download SQL Server 2005 Express Edition, again for free.

Comments

  • Anonymous
    April 19, 2006
    What's with Microsoft and all these freebies lately?  VS Express, SQL Server Express, Virtual Server, etc...

    Not that I'm complaining, though.  I would like WinXP Express for free, though.  Or Vista Express, for that matter, but I don't think my aging, ailing hardware can support it.  WinXP will suit me just fine!

    k thx bye!  :-)

  • Anonymous
    April 19, 2006
    And don't forget that SP1 of SQL Server 2005 is now available for download. That means that there's an update to SQL Server Express, and now the new SQL Server Express with Advanced Services is out: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=4C6BA9FD-319A-4887-BC75-3B02B5E48A40

    Additional features beyond SQL Server Express:

    * SQL Server Management Studio Express
    * Full-text search
    * SQL Reporting Services

  • Anonymous
    April 19, 2006
    Great news Visual Studio Express is now free!  This has been passed around the MSDN blogs but I...

  • Anonymous
    April 19, 2006
    I have used any of those products since... yesterday!

    P.S. your "worth checking out" is not opening successfully, YMMV

  • Anonymous
    April 20, 2006
    Billy,

    - do you mean you 'had not used before yesterday'?
    - re: broken link: I've tested, all seems fine though.

    Tommy - thanks for pointing out re: SP1

  • Anonymous
    April 20, 2006
    there goes my stupid sense of humor again... I just reloaded C++ yesterday after unloading it to load VB because the site said that I had to unload one before loading the other (even though a co-student said he didn't bother unloading first and it worked fine but I didn't wanna take any chances and didn't know that until the next day anyway)

    and yes, your link works fine, our network was hokey at school today, sorry for the wasted space lol

  • Anonymous
    April 20, 2006
    Hey BillyG,

    Multiple versions of Visual Studio Express work side-by-side, the uninstall instructions are about pre-release versions of Visual Studio including Beta 1, Beta 2, CTPs or Release Candidates. I have all the Visual Studio Express editions working side-by-side without problems.

    Thanks,
    -Dan

  • Anonymous
    March 14, 2008
    PingBack from http://www.4winmobile.com/forums/programming/5713-available-compilers-interpreters-2.html#post174790

  • Anonymous
    June 16, 2009
    PingBack from http://fixmycrediteasily.info/story.php?id=11139