Best way to license Microsoft software as an independent developer [closed] - windows

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I've recently switched from being an employee of a small consulting company to being an independent consultant and as time goes on I will need to upgrade Windows and Visual Studio. So what is the most affordable way to go about this for a small time developer?
My previous boss suggested I get a TechNet Plus subscription for OS licenses, I've done that and appears to be what I need, but open to other options for the future.
Visual Studio I'm having a hard time figuring out exactly what is the difference between Professional and Standard. Also I'd really like a digital version, but seems that expensive MSDN subscription is the only way?
Visual Studio 2008 Professional with MSDN Professional listed here appears to be semi-reasonably priced at $1,199. That would make the TechNet Plus subscription unneeded.

I recommend that if VS Express is not good enough, use Professional. Standard is missing some really useful features, like a Remote Debugger. Here is a detailed comparison:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/vs2008/products/cc149003.aspx
I'd say cancel TechNet and get one of the bottom two MSDN Subscriptions, Visual Studio Professional with either MSDN Professional or with MSDN Premium.

You have the Microsoft Empower for ISV program, see https://partner.microsoft.com/40011351
Gives you a full msdn pro subscription for two years.

For non developer tools try Microsoft Action Pack
https://partner.microsoft.com/40016455
Then use Visual Studio Professional (in some exibitions you will get this for free)
For the versioning use svn and not TeamSystem

I realise that this doesn't apply to the asker but it it is relevent to the question.
Any student developers out there try Microsfts Dream Spark scheme. Visual Studio, Expression Studio, XNA and Server 2003 for free!
Office is also available to students for less than 60 bucks in Microsfts `Ultimate Steal'

I think that Visual Studio Professional with MSDN Subscription doesn't offer much value compared to just purchasing Visual Studio 2010 Pro. You get testing licenses for Windows Server and MSSQL, but that's it. And you can get by just fine without those 90% of the time.
But Visual Studio Premium with MSDN is a different story. You get access to most other server products (testing license only of course), and an Office Professional license. That's a much better value for a one-man shop in my opinion, if you can afford it.

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can we use single visual studio licence to create multiple projects and sell them? [closed]

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I want to know if i buy Visual studio 2017 professional then can i sell multiple projects to multiple clients made in same visual studio licence ?
or there is any limit like one client to one licence ?
logically there should not be any limit , still wanted to confirm !
As long as you are selling "standalone" programs that are pre-built and do not require Visual Studio libraries to be distributed with your program in order for your program to run, there is no limitation.
Where things get a bit tricky is if you do have to distribute DLLs supplied by Visual Studio that your program requires. Some of these may have different licensing/conditions/limitations for licensed redistribution. For VS 2017, the list of VS files you are licensed to redistribute with your program can be found here: https://www.visualstudio.com/en-us/productinfo/2017-redistribution-vs . Any libraries on that list with modified licensing conditions that diverge from "you may freely redistribute" (such as ASP.NET libraries) are also annotated there.
Finally, there may be 3rd-party licensed add-on libraries that integrate with Visual Studio that have their own licensing conditions, such as the legacy InstallShield Limited Edition or Visual Studio Installer "wizard" libraries that were provided/sold to automate the installation of your VS-built program.
The full Visual Studio 2017 Professional License Terms can be found here: https://www.visualstudio.com/license-terms/mlt687465/

How to know if I have trial version of visual studio 2010?

My university has several programs available for download. About 6 months ago I downloaded visual studio 2010 ultimate edition. I am not sure if it is the trial version. I don't think so because I've been using it for about 6 months and I have not had to extend any trial. Moreover, I don't get the splash screen that says for evaluation purposes only. I used to have that screen on a trial of visual studio profesional edition that I had in my previos computer. If I dont have a trial version that means I can distribute my applications?
In Help > About Microsoft Visual Studio you can see licensing information. Mine says that it is licensed to me (yay!) and yours should say something similar.
I am not sure about volume licensing, because ours has been bought through an Open Value contract and we have MSDN accounts for every developer, so you have to download your own product key from the MSDN site. Perhaps there are versions of 2010 which do not require you to enter a product key in a different volume licensing contract, but I am not aware of those.
Really though, if you are on a student edition you are not supposed to use it for commercial applications. Just be safe and buy a copy if you are going to distribute your applications (especially commercially).
For those students out there, as a point of interest, Microsoft offers a lot of free software on dreamspark.com (Visual studio 2010 Professional included) in which you should have no problems distributing your own applications - You just need a .edu email.
Regardless of whether Visual Studio is prompting you to purchase a full version, you've obtained your copy via your university. Your best bet is to ask someone in your university's IT department.
You also probably signed an agreement as part of your enrolment which would clarify this.

Visual Studio 2010 ultimate developer license

I'm not quite sure how the Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate licensing works.
How many developers can use Visual Studio in Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate?
Is it a single user product? or for as many developers as required?
See buying here :
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-gb/subscriptions/buy.aspx
Per developer (usually named). There is also volume licensing if you have a lot of dev heads
When you buy the Ultimate license, if you don't have some sort of corporate subscription, the price you see on the site is a per-developer cost.
Ultimate is expensive. My advice would be to look over what it gives you versus what your team needs and decide from there. Depending on the work you're doing, Professional may be enough (I don't typically advise going lower).
This is a single user product. There's a separate page for volume licensing: http://www.microsoft.com/licensing/default.aspx
Here is a whitepaper that describes more about the licensing process of Visual Studio, published in September of 2010:
From the link:
This white paper provides an overview of the Visual Studio 2010 product line, including MSDN subscriptions, and the licensing requirements for those products in common deployment scenarios.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=2b1504e6-0bf1-46da-be0e-85cc792c6b9d&displaylang=en

Do I need visual studio license? [closed]

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I am a novice freelancer providing .NET solutions. Currently I have a Student version of Visual Studio that I am working. But, If I want to deliver solutions to the clients, do I need to have buy the VS license?
For instance, I got a requirement from a client (does'nt have VS license) to build a web application in godaddy. In this case, does we both need to purchase license?
Is there any alternative like developing the application in web developer express edition and publish that using Nant tools?
Thanks in advance,
Kris
Use the Visual Studio Express edition. There are no limitations regarding commercial use.
From FAQ
Can I use Express Editions for
commercial use? Yes, there are no
licensing restrictions for
applications built using Visual Studio
Express Editions.
Microsoft just released a new version of Visual Studio - Visual Studio Community.
It is the equivalent of Visual Studio 2013 Professional but free for students, open source software projects, and small teams (less than 5).
I am not a lawyer and this is not a site to get legal questions answer. But in general, you cannot use student versions to deliver commercial products. Also, depending on the software each machine has to use it's own license of the software.
If you're talking about Visual Studio 2010 Express, then there's a thread here on the MSDN forums that states: "Provided that you comply with all the License Terms for a particular Express release, the 2010 Express SKUS can be used to create commercial software."

which Visual Studio level to buy?

I currently have Visual Studio 2008 Developer Edition. I wish to renew this and get the 3 year SA. However the cost is crazy (around 6-7K USD). The only things that I require above and beyond what Visual Studio Professional Edition used to have are access to TFS (Team Foundation Server) and the ability to create and run Test projects (especially the ability to generate the stubs for unit testing private methods).
Therefore is it true that Visual Studio Professional plus a separate purchase of a TFS CAL will do exactly this for me?
Yes, those two will fill your technical requirements but I'm no licensing expert so I'm not going to say that its all you'll need from a licensing perspective.
In case you haven't seen there’s a document which describes the features of all the different SKUs at Visual Studio 2008 Product Comparison Guide
UPDATE:
There's a paper about licensing at Visual Studio Team System 2008 Licensing White Paper
Visual Studio professional does not contain the full suite of automated Testing tools provided in Team Suite editions so you can't really do TDD (if that's your aim) without additional tools.
You can however create and run Test Projects so they are at last available if you can find an alternative test generation tool or are working with a solution with tests already in it.
If you are an ISV (independent solution vendor) you might look at the BizSpark program. If you qualify software licensing becomes a great deal simpler for the next three years. ($300)
Hope that helps,
Dan
BizSpark

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