The free VS Express 2005 products are a nice gesture; but, when using them one wonders how "scalable" the experience is.

In the glory days of Microsoft QuickBASIC, then Visual Basic, when Mr. Gates boasted of the millions of such MS Basic users worldwide, the products were all ones that one could make deployable apps with, even if they were not obtained in the full "pro" versions initially.

I'm not convinced that what the little guy gets to use for free now is quite the same deal, since the free VS apps are downfeatured and promoted for use to develop stuff that one just uses on one's own computer. Really, one gets more inspired more at the idea of deploying one's apps like a real developer, to other people, maybe for some cash in return.

One has just a bit of a feeling that one is on a bit of leash this time around, feeling a tad less than inspired than inducted.

What I'd like to know is whether the "free" VS Express Editions for the the "2005" versions will have any durability as free inspiration when the next versions come out. Sorry Bill, but I am not inspired enough to pay for this stuff quite yet.

The express product line is here to stay. And wow... Joe actually wrote a post that didn't find a way to bash Microsoft. Better watch out Joe, if your boss finds out you didn't publish anti-MS prose you might be looking for a new job (eWeek being that bastion of journalistic integrity in the tech world and all that)

Hi , I was wondering who do I talk to about a person , that is being looked for by your office which also by the F B I for Eleagelly coping and selling a program , I know where this person is and I know from people that Your company is looking for him ,,, and his name is Jeffery Anderson ,,, so PLease let me know what I can do to help ,,

Bill Gates didn't get rich using someone else's development environment. He got rich from a freak set of circumstances and an ability to maximise the potential of the business he helped start. He got rich buying and re-selling other people's products. Things he couldn't buy he copied, usually poorly. He got rich from illegal business activity.

So all you budding programmers, if you want to get rich and do what Bill Gates did, don't buy his product, make a better one. Start a company that does whatever it takes to make your product successful, don't care about ethics or morality or even legality. All's fair in love, war and IT. Apparently.

I saw this yesterday and thought "hmmmmm....."

'Unfortunately, Bill Gates is not a wizard. Even worse, he is a bad programmer. When Martin Eller, a Microsoft programmer, found an error in the flood fill routine of the MS-Basic interpreter, he exclaimed "Which moron wrote this brainless sh*t?" only to find out it was Gates himself who wrote the "brainless sh*t". I think it is safe to say that Bill Gates is hardly the technical wizard he would so much like to be.'

Source: http://thebeez.vnunetblogs.com/the_beez_speaks/2006/09/hasta_la_vista_.html

Visual Studio is a child's toy compared to other development tools, so it seems appropriate they would put a man-child in the advertisement.

Just to let you know, I made a parody of this :
http://plagiats.free.fr/inspiredjobs.jpg

Roy, i followed your link and click to another one on the same site talking, actually "bashing" Vista. As some point he says that Microsoft does not trust .NET and that's why it has not use it to replace native code in Vista. I then understood that this guy, does not know what he is talking about..

Let's see a young pic of Uncle "I LOVE THIS COMPANY" Fester as well. Ugh.

The funny thing is, any new up and coming developer has an inherent dislike for anything Microsoft. If Bill Gates or any of the original MS crew were doing it over today, they wouldn't touch Microsoft products with a ten foot poll.

The funny thing is, any new up and coming developer has an inherent dislike for anything Microsoft. If Bill Gates or any of the original MS crew were doing it over today, they wouldn't touch Microsoft products with a ten foot poll.

Determinator and some others are being unjustly hard on Mr. Gates and Microsoft. Let's be honest with ourselves. Mr. Gates is the billionaire here and he has done a lot of things right in terms of his success.

That being said, it is true that today as--not in the QuickBASIC/PDS and Visual 3-6 Basic era--that there is no universally great clamor to learn and use MS development products as long-run tools.

The problem is that today everyone doubts whether the MS product lines are durable in themselves over time, or whether they will be dumped whenever it is profit-convenient for MS to do so.

The main precedent here is the cutting off at the knees of VB6 and the compelled change to the .Not platform--er sorry--.Net or VB 2005 or whatever.

Despite the borrowed "VB" name for VB .Not, that codebreaking evolution meant that a lot of developers did not make the transition and because a major new investment in learning and license costs was imposed, many of these people migrated to durable less proprietary alternatives.

The latest example is the Foxpro database. Hey Redmond, don't you know that the value of a long-run commitment to software lies in part in its very long run durability? Not all customers are like IBM's mainframe customers with budgets to start over whenever new hardware and software is up for sale, you know.

The problem isn't that people don't like Microsoft, rather, it's just that the pattern is all too clear: Whatever else, don't get too deep into depending on the MS language product, because it may vanish like Cinderella some day.

it is hard to marshal troops for a long walk off an eventual plank.

Put a picture of Ballmer in an ad and it will scare people away.

Anyone who thinks Visual Studio is child's play has had too much of the LAMP kool-aid. The fact of the matter is VS is a far superior IDE than Eclipse and yes even VI that are so beloved by this mind numbed group of socialists.

I truly believe you have to try it before you knock it. The worst kinds of people are those who profess a hatred for something, and have never actually tried it. I started in the UNIX world, but quickly discovered that it was one of closed minded individuals, driven only by the disgust of one man's personal success.

I am an American Programmer, and the success of others is only a challenge for me, not a barrier. I am an American Programmer, and I will not whine when I am unhappy at the life I have made for myself. I am an American Programmer, and I will not dabble in communist philosophy and software.

Think I'm crazy? Then why is it that the only people in the LAMP world that get ahead are those who created it. Look at Microsoft; it has produced more millionaires and billionaires than any other company in the world. What has Google done for you lately, other than turn your personal information of to the Chinese?

I like this free stuff. I am skint.