Microsoft to Provide Free Development Tools
19th April 2006
Wednesday Microsoft announced that Visual Studio 2005 Express will be available for free. Originally this offer was to be for one year, but they have now made this offer available on a permanent basis.
Within this press release, Microsoft also announced plans for partnerships to provide resources for developers. These resources would be geared to nonprofessional developers. This is a great step in giving budget level developers the ability to toy with Microsoft development tools.
“There is a resurgence in hobbyist and do-it-yourself developers,” said Dan Fernandez, lead product manager for Visual Studio Express.. “We want to enable the next generation of developers.”
Microsoft has estimated that there are over 18 million nonprofessional developers worldwide. Fernandez said that Visual Studio 2005 Express had been downloaded about 5 millions times since last November.
Companies are starting to see the importance of providing free software, particularly development tools. With the rush of open source applications available, large companies are anxious to get these tools in from of developers. Many are going Microsoft in letting the developers have these tools to test.