RSSVisual Studio 2008 hits the streets one month early
By Scott M. Fulton, III | Published January 30, 2008, 6:25 PM
Once again Microsoft redefines the concept of "launch," releasing today the retail edition of a suite that was said to have "launched" last November, though whose "launch party" remains scheduled for late February.
It's one of the guests of honor at a formal launch party still slated for February 27 in Los Angeles. But with one guest bowing out early -- specifically, SQL Server 2008, whose RTM may come as much as six months later -- Microsoft decided today to balance things out by moving up its retail release of Visual Studio 2008 to today.
The latest edition of the developers' suite was actually officially released for download last November, though boxed editions are now available starting today through retail channels.
Microsoft's marketing push for next month's launch party, whose theme is "Heroes Happen Here" (in what appears to be a stirring simultaneous tribute to both Stan Lee and Hubert Humphrey), now features its own comic strip. The first edition of the HHH comic strip was published today, featuring submissions from ideas taken from the company's own developers, and with art contributed from comic artists worldwide.
Yawn..
REAL developers got their copy of Visual Studio 2008 from MSDN months ago.
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|That's a little arrogant. Not everyone can afford over a thousand dollars for studio with an MSDN subscription, and not everyone chooses to run the very latest version of studio, either.
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|i don't think that's a display of arrogance, but a look at what is considered news by BN.
I see nothing wrong with getting something on the street first, waiting a bit, and then having a launch party.
BN seems a little anti MS, and I'm being conservative by saying "little". Trying to take something normal and putting a negative spin on it.
Bravo BN
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|I don't know if I took it as completely negative... more like them making an observation. MS does it's launches differently, but I can see why: They want to get the product into people's hands as soon as possible due to competitive pressures, but it take time to ramp up retail distribution (they can't ship the boxes to CDW and Insight at different times, but they can to MSDN subscribers), and they have to plan the "Launch Party" well before the product is ready to go.
Compare it to the iPhone: It was a secret, then it was announced, but it took them a while to nail down a date when it would go on sale, which ended up being 6 months after the announcement.
One method of introducing a product isn't better than the other, it's just a function of scheduling and marketing.
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|Or they are students and got their subscription free...
*Smiles*
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|Alrighty folks: Where is the cheapest place to get VS 2008 Professional Edition (legally?) in the US?
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|MSDN is the cheapest way to go...
Remember the express (ie, free) versions can be downloaded from:
http://www.microsoft.com/express/download/
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|They also seem to have a lot more learning resources available for free with this release too.
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|Upgrade or full? Buy.com lists it for $469/$689.
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|Yeah they made a real effort to not just release a bunch of new technologies and not show people how to use it. They launched a site http://code.msdn.com which is dedicated for Microsoft and the community to share samples and program using the new technologies.
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|Try ebay.
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