MSDN Universal Subscription

[Denaes]

My wife and I are starting a Design/Development company and I started looking into buisiness costs. I start thinking of what I need for a company and I come across MSDN Subscriptions.

Here is what it seems to offer:

• VS.Net Enterprise Architect 2003
• Visual Studio 6 Enterprise
• Visual Studio Tools for Office
• Windows 2000 Professional/Server/Advanced Server
• XP Home/Professional
• Server 2003
• SQL Server 2000
• A bunch of other server things (BizTalk, Exchange server, commerce server, etc)
• MS Office Pro Enterprise 2003
• Visio
• Project
• MapPoint

The retail price is 2,700. I guess this lasts for a time frame - like a year probobly? But it seems they send you CD/DVDs of the software and everything. I know you have access to VS 2005 (the rest of us just have access to the Express versions).

Ive seen prices as low as 1800 for the full non-student package. Even at 2,700 this seems to be extremely worth it for developers who dont own Visual Studio, SQL Server 2000, MS Office 2003 (Im still running off of 2000), etc.

Any downsides to this? If you have it subscribed for a year, and VS.Net 2005 comes out, do you get that as well?

Im curious to hear from any current subscribers. It seems like an awesome deal to take up once every year or 3.

I was sweating my startup costs at having to get VS 2003 and upgrade to 2005 - or just waiting for 2005, SQL Server 2000 and a few other odds n ends. This seems like it would kill 3 birds with one stone as well as a few squirls, rabbits and even a llama!

Is there a reason NOT to do this? Just for VS.Net 2005, SQL Server 2000 (maybe 2005 will be out soon?) a few operating systems and having things sent to you on DVD seems more than worth it.

 

[Joe Mamma]

Extremely useful. . .

bought mine here -
http://www.softwaremedia.com/ms-53402125.html
Great service, timely delivery.
Fully legal

US$1360


leave the llama out of this!!!

 

[Denaes]

Extremely useful. . .

bought mine here -
http://www.softwaremedia.com/ms-53402125.html
Great service, timely delivery.
Fully legal

US$1360


leave the llama out of this!!!

Well, thats two worries of mine soothed. It IS usefull and it IS available at like half off without being a pirated copy.

So, it lasts for about a year?

If new software comes out (like VS 2005) durring your suscription, are you eligible for that as well?

 

[Joe Mamma]

Well, thats two worries of mine soothed. It IS usefull and it IS available at like half off without being a pirated copy.

So, it lasts for about a year?

If new software comes out (like VS 2005) durring your suscription, are you eligible for that as well?

I didnt read the fine print, but thats what I assume.

I have a permenent visual studio license and can use all upgrades\revisions that are released in that year. I think the real benefits are the resources more than the IDE though mine needs to be renewed.

 

[irasmith]

If you visit this Microsoft page you can see several levels of the MSDN subscription. Depening on which level you subscribe to will determine in part the cost. The fee is something you pay annually to keep enrolled in the service.

Presently I am not a subscriber simply because I am just starting out and at the moment do not need the full range of products it delivers. The benefit from it is to provide developers with access to all the tools and packages that they need to set up development and test environments from within which to perform their product creation. It is by far cheaper to acquire an MSDN subscription than it is to try going out and buying one of everything in the list of stuff it provides.

So to a degree you can still further control your cost and investment by determining if you need everything the full featured package delivers or perhaps you can start out smaller and grow your business to need those extra things. I tend to start out small and work to grow it large simply because I would otherwise get bogged down in the detail of it all and spend my time learning about everything rather than just sticking with what I know and working with that. (Yes, Im that much of a geek )

 

[Merrion]

My wife and I are starting a Design/Development company

Then you certainly need to look at the Empower/ISV program. You get the full MSDN universal (5 licenses) fro just $350ish.

There are restrictions which you probably qualify for..definitely worth a look.

 

[samsmithnz]

Yes it lasts a year, and you get updates I BELIEVE (but Im not sure, as I dont directly receive them anymore) every 3 monthes, but it may be more often than that, they might arrive every month.

Its definitly worth it, as it includes all the licenses you need to run whatever servers you think you might want (eg SQL, BizTalk, Commerce Server), and keeps you up-to-date with the latest products including VS.NET 2005 when it comes out, and the online ability to download anything you might need (NT 4 in Arabic? its there!), for whatever reason.

 

[Divil]

You get send CDs (or DVDs) once a month, if there are any to send. This includes betas of all technical software. You get pretty much everything Microsoft produces that conceivably has development use (i.e. not games).

A subscription lasts one year, so if it expires the day before a new version of VS comes out, you wont get it. However the licenses for the software included are perpetual, so you can go on using the software after your subscription ends. The main restriction is that you have to use the software for development/testing purposes - for instance, you cant use the Exchange license for running your companys email system, or SQL Server for running your production website database.