First off, only Microsoft would use the word "simplifies" in the headline of the press release that ultimately requires reading through a zillion Web pages and following flow charts to figure out. Having taken the time today to do just that, I hope I can save Larkware readers at least a bit of trouble. My guess is that a lot of your are already MSDN subscribers and Visual Studio users, and so you might well be interested in what's coming our way whenever the next versions release.
Let's start with some facts. Here's what the announced pricing looks like for the various Visual Studio 2005 SKUs:
The Express Editions are good for folks just getting interested in software development, but they've got so much stuff stripped out of them that no serious developer will be happy with them for long (among other things, there's no support for add-ins or source code control in the Express Editions). The difference between Standard and Professional is that Standard has a "streamlined" user experience and lacks high-end features like remote debugging, SQL Server 2005 integration, and SQL Server Reporting Services support (Professional bundles SQL Server 2005 Developer Edition). The Tools for Office edition is basically Standard plus the Office integration bits and a copy of Office 2003 (I think - someone will correct me if I'm wrong about that).
Then there's Visual Studio Team System, and here things get murkier. But I'll get to that...
But I expect most developers are actually going to get their Visual Studio copies as part of MSDN subscriptions instead, and this is where the real changes are coming.
To review, here's what the MSDN pricing options look like today.
Now, with the new pricingannounced, the tail turns around and wags the dog - that is, they're plugging the MSDN subscriptions as adjuncts to the Visual Studio purchases, rather than vice versa:
For developer purposes, forget about the Library and Operating Systems subscriptions; they're not changing and they don't get you the Visual Studio bits anyhow. The Professional/Professional level appears to be the equivalent of the current MSDN Professional (with a nice $100 price drop for renewals); you get the operating systems and SQL Server Developer Edition. Professional/Premium is pretty close to MSDN Universal (with the exception of not offering the top-of-the-line Visual Studio); MSDN Premium includes the operating systems, the various server products, and the productivity applications. Details on what's in MSDN Professional and MSDN Premium, as well as the usage rights for the various products, are here.
Ah, now for the fun part: the upgrade options for existing MSDN Enterprise and MSDN Universal customers. First, you need to know what happens at the high end of Visual Studio. This is where you get five new products:
The first four of these each come with MSDN Premium and hold-on-to-your-hat pricing:
If you're an MSDN Enterprise subscriber when VS2005 comes out, you automatically get upgraded at no cost to Visual Studio 2005 Team Edition for Software Developers with MSDN Premium. If you're an MSDN Universal subscriber when VS2005 comes out, you get to choose one of the Visual Studio Team System role subscriptions to upgrade to. Existing Universal or Enterprise subscribers can move up into the Team Suite product at the renewal pricing, if they want. Speaking personally, I think Microsoft has finally managed to jack the price of the high-end MSDN subscription to the point where I will no longer stay on the merry-go-round. I like Microsoft software but not that much.
As for the Team Foundation Server that everything else hooks up to: "The Visual Studio 2005 Team Foundation Server is sold separately on a Server/CAL basis" If there's been server pricing announced yet, I sure haven't been able to find it. I don't think it's going to be cheap.
Finally, I think Microsoft is making a serious, serious mistake in not including the whole Team Foundation Server in the top-level MSDN package. I could rant on about this a bit, but Eric Bowen beat me to it with a perfect post. You ought to hop over to his blog and read the whole thing; I'll quote the ending: "Bottom line for Microsoft: How can you expect consultants to recommend products to clients that we aren't familiar with, because we don't have access to them?" I'm with him on that. I pay for my own MSDN subscription; there's no way I'm also laying out another who-knows-how-many-dollars for TFS to see whether it's really a worthwhile product. If Microsoft doesn't want its committed developers evangelizing this product, fine, that's their decision - but I think it's a mighty darned stupid decision. At least I know I don't need to set aside time for the agonizing install process to beta test the full Visual Studio Team System now; I'm not about to spend my time doing free quality control on a product I'll never use.