Free Development

Microsoft have another gig or so of my hard disk, I've just downloaded Visual Studio Express 2005.

All of the Express editions are available for free until this time next year, so if you want to see what's changed or catch up, check them out. Amazingly, the free versions allow commercial distribution under the terms of their license... although they say they aren't optimised for serious development. I don't know everything that you can and can't do in the Express editions, but I do know that there's no source code control, so I don't think I would embark on any major projects with them. Even still, they are powerful tools to have free access to, and I'm sure plenty of people will be able to work around the limitations.

I'm looking forward to digging in to see what has changed. I downloaded one of the beta versions an age ago but then got sidelined (in fact I think I had installed it on my pre-flood PC) and didn't really follow the rest of the development.

Right now I'm just frustrated because I was told that I'd get a collection of benefits for registering, stock images, icons, ebooks etc... I registered everything, but whenever I try to go to the benefits portal I just get told I'm not participating in any beta programs. Ah well... I guess I'll take another look into it next time I have a free hour or so and see if I don't have better luck then.