OT: New, (post 20th century) M$ compiler question.

[DSF]

Hello!

Even though I find most M$ software counterintuitive, I am looking
at M$ Visual Studio Community 2013. If anyone here has had experience
with it, I'd like to pose these questions. (Neither are subjective.)

M$ claims it is identical to their Visual Studio 2013 Pro, as
compared with Visual Studio Express which is lacking several
components of the Pro version. The only difference is licensing. Can
you confirm this?

The "Community" part of the title has me to wonder if this software
is facilitated entirely within your computer or is somewhat
"Cloud-based." Does it require an Internet connection to use?

What with Adobe going to a %100 "pay as you go" business model, it's
got me to wondering. (Although I don't believe I've read whether
Adobe's model is actually Internet-based software or local
computer-based software that stops working if you stop paying.) I do
believe you need an active Internet connection during use.

Thanks for any info,
DSF
"'Later' is the beginning of what's not to be."
D.S. Fiscus

[Christopher Pisz]

I am not sure on the details of their various editions. They keep adding
and subtracting more every year. It is annoying to no end.

Unless you are doing something with a team or business, professional
version is adequate in most cases.

Community edition looks like it just have a bunch of crap you get for
free anyway built into it, from what I am reading. Git extensions and
the like. You'd still have to pay for Azure and all that jazz (which is
a rip off imo.)

Adobe's subscription model is a joke. I worked out the cost and it would
be almost 5x as expensive given my frequency of upgrading photoshop.

I hate subscription models in general. If I buy it, I want it in a box
on my shelf, licensed for my lifetime. They are all out to squeeze more
money out of Joe User. Businesses already subscribe to MSDN anyway and
have access to whatever they like.

At any rate. If you are looking for a new version of visual studio, I'd
say now is not the time to buy, as MSVS 2014 is very near to release.

[Christopher Pisz]

Hrm, well I looked it up and evidently it is free.
So,...umm download it and find out the answers to all your questions :P

[DSF]

I *HATE* subscription models. Not only for the reasons you mention,
but also because you have no choice when it comes to upgrading. If
they've removed a feature you use often (but maybe most users don't),
or changed how every operation works because they've discovered a
"better" way - Tough Luck! You can't fall back on your previous
version because it doesn't exist.

>At any rate. If you are looking for a new version of visual studio, I'd
>say now is not the time to buy, as MSVS 2014 is very near to release.

As you noted in your follow-up post, the Community version is free.
Hence my disbelief that it is identical to the Pro version, save for
licensing.

I already have downloaded it, but I am having VirtualBox problems. I
will not install it into my main system. "C:" is not my programming
drive, "E:" is. The last time I installed a version of VS Express, I
set every path I could change to E:\etc... It installed about 20% of
itself on E: and the other 80% in C:\Windows and C:\Program Files. And
after uninstallation, it left so much of itself on C: that I wound up
deleting/reinstalling Windows to get rid of the bloat.

By the way, I guess that's another reason I've stuck with the
Borland compiler for so long. It stores very little in the Windows
directory and, because of that, is fairly portable.

Thanks again,

[David Brown]

It is software from MS - you didn't think it would follow the rules for
a Windows program did you? MS software often has trouble with a setup
that is something other than the standard - everything on C:, Windows in
C:\Windows, programs always in C:\Program Files (good luck if you use a
different language version of windows with a different folder name
here!), latest updates on everything, and so on. And while other
software gets installed in its own folders, MS has the "right" to stomp
all over Windows with whatever it wants to put there, changing DLL's,
adding stuff to your path, changing your defaults.

[Richard]

[Please do not mail me a copy of your followup]

DSF <nota...@address.here> spake the secret code
<1gjsdahrmn2mk2fje...@4ax.com> thusly:

>MS claims it is identical to their Visual Studio 2013 Pro, as

>compared with Visual Studio Express which is lacking several
>components of the Pro version. The only difference is licensing. Can
>you confirm this?

I haven't done a bullet-by-bullet feature comparison, but it would
be consistent with previous free editions (i.e. Academic Edition
was the same as Professional IIRC).

>Does it require an Internet connection to use?

No.

The main difference between Community Edition and the previous Express
Editions is that you now have access to a free version that lets you
add-on extensions. This means you can extend VS Community with free
plugins for CMake, Clang, etc., as well as commercial plugins like
Visual Assist X.
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