I want to develop a commercial win32 desktop application using Visual Studio Community edition 2015. It's good to say that I'm the only developer. Nobody else is going to join me. And I don't want to sell it in the windows store. Rather, distribute it commercially in my own website. Am I allowed to do this? I can't fully understand the vs community license.
Additionally, if two of my friends join me(team of three), will that be allowed?
The following clause from the Microsoft Software License Terms for Microsoft Visual Studio Community 2015 is applicable:
Individual license. If you are an individual working on your own applications to sell or for any other purpose, you may use the software to develop and test those applications.
In other words, as an individual developer you can use Visual Studio Community 2015 to develop commercial software distributed through any distribution channel (including your own web site).
The next clause may be applicable, if you run a non-enterprise organization:
Organization licenses. If you are an organization, your users may use the software as follows:
...
If none of the above apply, and you are also not an enterprise (defined below), then up to 5 of your individual users can use the software concurrently to develop and test your applications.
...
In your specific case (team of 3) it would be legal to use Visual Studio Community 2015 to develop commercial applications, provided that you are a non-enterprise organization. An "enterprise" is defined as:
An "enterprise" is any organization and its affiliates who collectively have either (a) more than 250 computers or users or (b) more than one million US dollars (or the equivalent in other currencies) in annual revenues, and "affiliates" means those entities that control (via majority ownership), are controlled by, or are under common control with an organization.
More details are available in the Visual Studio 2015 Licensing White Paper.
Related
I've started doing test automation for my employer with Visual studio express but very soon realized that it does not have good plugin support. Now i'm planning to move away from it and after reading about Community version I think this is the best option to go.
However, I'm not really sure on the licensing terms, it does say that I can't use it for commercial purposes but I'm just doing test automation for my employer which I'm sure will not be sold, does it still gets counted as commercial development ?
If not then can I use Visual studio Community version ?
From the website:
An unlimited number of users within an organization can use Visual
Studio Community for the following scenarios: in a classroom learning
environment, for academic research, or for contributing to open source
projects.
For all other usage scenarios:
In non-enterprise
organizations, up to five users can use Visual Studio Community. In
enterprise organizations (meaning those with >250 PCs or >$1 Million
US Dollars in annual revenue), no use is permitted beyond the open
source, academic research, and classroom learning environment
scenarios described above.
So you're allowed to use it in an enterprise if you're contributing to open source, research or teaching; or are a company with less than 250 PCs and under $1,000,000 in revenue and there are fewer than 5 users working with it
I'd be the only one using the product, but I'll need to install VS on 4 different computers: My office Desktop, one virtual machine, my home desktop and my laptop.
I've been using the MSDN Operating Systems subscription for a number of years so I have a general idea of what I'm allowed to do, but I don't understand if a Visual Studio Professional with MSDN allows me to install multiple copies of VS Pro.
To give you an idea of what I'm looking for, I'm currently using Delphi 2010 Named User: this allows me to install Delphi on multiple computers, given I'm the only one using those Delphi installations.
The license is per-user, so you can install it on any number of devices, but it is licensed only for you to use. This is printed in clear text in the Visual Studio 2010 and MSDN Licensing White Paper:
Any team member can install and use
MSDN software on as many devices as
they like. The license does not
restrict where the device is located
(at work, at home, at school, at a
customer’s office, etc.). However,
each user of that MSDN software must
have an appropriate MSDN subscription.
Does anyone know how licensing work for Visual Studio 2010 from MSDN? I noticed it doesn't require a key. Does that mean that I can install it on multiple computers?
Go to the source :) MSDN Subscription Software Use Rights:
MSDN subscriptions are licensed on a per-user basis. One person can use the software to design, develop, test, or demonstrate his or her programs on any number of devices. Each person who uses the software this way needs a license.
So yes, as long as you're the one using it, it may be on multiple computers. Two different Microsoft licensing reps have confirmed this for me over the years, and it was a conscious decision since many developers have multiple machines. This applies to other MSDN downloads as well, Windows 7, Windows Server, etc.
It is "pre-pidded", which means the key is baked in. You can install it on any computer you like, but that doesn't mean you should - you still have to abide by the licence agreement imposed by your subscription.
By itself, this does not mean that you have a license for multiple computers. Quite a few Microsoft products have built-in license keys for certain license types which allow only a single installation. Look at your license agreement. If it's still unclear, call Microsoft or ask a lawyer.
I have been looking at whether our MSDN Premium Subscriptions would cover upgrading our developer’s machines from Vista OEM to Win 7 RTM MSDN.
The assumption here is that "design, develop, test, or demonstrate" covers the developer’s day job, so should cover the OS.
I have found that other development shops seem to make this same assumption.
Having looked at the MSDN Subscription Software Use Rights page this does not seem to be the case.
from the page :
"Many MSDN subscribers use a computer for mixed use—both design, development, testing, and demonstration of your programs (the use allowed under the MSDN Subscription license) and some other use.
Using the software in any other way, such as for doing email, playing games, or editing a document is another use and is not covered by the MSDN Subscription license.
When this happens, the underlying operating system must also be licensed normally by purchasing a regular copy of Windows such as the one that came with a new OEM PC"
So if you are not using the operating software install to purely "design, develop, test" read "use your visual studio license" and you answered a company email you are in violation of the license.
Is this indeed the case?
Is there a way that MSDN OS licenses can cover your day to day dev machine?
Did you make the same assumption as I did?
Yes that's the case. No you can't change the license.
MSDN license has always been a "technical" license that restricts the usage to development "sandbox" only. Your primary workstation must be covered by a regular non-dev license. Although I heard of some shops that (purposefully or not) violate this license and are very happy with the savings.
Based on this document the accepted answer no longer appears to hold true (at least for licensed users of Visual Studio Enterprise with MSDN).
Relevant excerpt (p13) says:
Production use of Office Professional Plus 2016
Office Professional Plus 2016 can be used by licensed users of Visual Studio Enterprise with MSDN or Visual Studio Enterprise – annual on
one device for production use
From this page the Office Professional Plus SKU contains Outlook, and although IANAL it would seem that use of Outlook is now allowed with an MSDN subscription.
With regard to the underlying OS this remains excluded. The relevant text from the licensing document says:
When there is mixed use the underlying operating system must be licensed normally by purchasing a regular copy of Windows such as the
one that came with a new OEM PC.
Closed. This question does not meet Stack Overflow guidelines. It is not currently accepting answers.
This question does not appear to be about programming within the scope defined in the help center.
Closed 2 years ago.
Improve this question
I know that some companies allow you to install their products on build machines as required without requiring a separate license (DevExpress is one that comes to mind). However I was wondering if Microsoft had the same allowances on licenses.
MSBuild does not support vdproj directly and require you to run Visual Studio from the command line to build the setup project. See here
I need to produce a setup file via an automated build; do I need to purchase an additional license for the build machine?
Edit: I have spoken to our admin in charge of licensing and he was happy for me to install VS2008 on the build machine without purchasing an additional license, believing that a license should not be required. If I here more official information I will update again.
Edit 2: I have heard that Microsoft will allow VS2008 to be installed on a build machine as long as the instance is not being used by a developer for active development.
Here is the agreement (PDF link!). (There are different ones for different versions of VS). So it depends on how you read ...
General. One user may install and use copies of the software to design, develop, test and demonstrate your programs. Testing does not include staging on a server in a production environment, such as loading content prior
to production use.
To me that says you don't need an additional license because one user can install and use copies. But, I am not a lawyer. :)
According to the VS 2015 Licensing White Paper, you do not need a separate VS license for your build server:
Using Visual Studio on the Build Server: If you have one or more
licensed users of Visual Studio Enterprise with MSDN, Visual Studio
Professional with MSDN, or any Visual Studio cloud subscription then
you may also install the Visual Studio software as part of Team
Foundation Server 2017 Build Services. This way, you do not need to
purchase a Visual Studio license to cover the running of Visual Studio
on the build server for each person whose actions initiate a build.
Update (May 26, 2017)
Microsoft has also now published the Visual Studio 2017 Licensing Whitepaper as well, which has the exact same requirements as noted above.
msbuild.exe comes with .NET SDK, but just with the Framework. You can grab the 2.0 SDK here for free, but it's a big honking download. 3.5 is available as well, but it's even huger.