Did you catch tonight’s episode of The Office? Not the BBC version, but the new NBC version. It’s somewhat late but I swear that Michael Scott (the Regional Manager of Dunder Mifflin Paper Products (and office boss)) just stated that his nationality background is the same exact mixture that I have running through my veins. I had to rewind the Tivo several times to make sure I heard him right.
Why this is so out of the ordinary is that our blood line (Michael’s and mine) is not just English.. or English/Irish…or English/Irish/German…or English/Irish/German/Scottish buta truely full heaping of English/Irish/German/Scottish and Native American. I never realized there was someone else out there with the same mixed bag of nationalities such as my own. (Albeit I’m a real person and Michael Scott is a fictional character on a TV show.) Did one of the writers on the show poke into my family tree and pull out the parts???
And in case you’re wondering, although Michael didn’t divulge his Native American roots my understanding is I’m some parts Chippewa.
Just a weird moment at 1AM in the morning.
I came across a comment from Prashant Sridharan (Microsoft PM) that sums up the options to go from your MSDN/Universal subscriptions to VSTS.
Re: Renewal rates.
As I’ve said previously, when you transition into a role-based SKU, you keep your OLD renewal rate for as long as you keep renewing. Your old pricing comes with you if you transition into VSTS.
If you do NOT transition into VSTS, you do not get to keep your old pricing if you, at some point later, elect to move into VSTS. You’d pay the new price.
Note that the transition to a role-based SKU is NO COST. If you have an active MSDN/U subscription when we ship, you move into the role-based SKU for NOT A DIME MORE. Further, you get to keep your old renewal rate for as long as you keep renewing.
Once again, I will reiterate:
1. The functional equivalent of MSDN/U is now VS Pro with MSDN Premium Subscription.
2. We are transitioning active MSDN/U subscribers to a role-based SKU at NO COST.
3. We are providing very inexpensive upgrade pricing for MSDN/U subcribers to get the Suite.
4. We are discounting MSDN/U RIGHT NOW so that those customers without MSDN/U subscriptions can get it and prepare for the transitions if they so choose.
…
Is the Suite more than I had to pay today? Yes, but today you don’t get load testing, you don’t get (real) modeling tools, you don’t get unit testing, you don’t get static analysis, you don’t get a whole lot of things. You get a whole lot more with VSTS than you had before. |
I would still like to know what the cost of point #4 will be.
I’m probably a little late to the game, but I wanted to add my thoughts on the recent price announcements around Team System.
It looks as if a number of the smaller development shops and independent developers are a little miffed that Team Foundation will not be included in their MSDN subscriptions. What people seem to be missing the point on is that Team Foundation was never meant as a product for the smaller development shops. It was always marketed as an enterprise-class lifecycle development toolset.
The MSDN subscription is a cost-effective way to get the resources in the developers hands to create windows-based applications. Team Foundation is a tool for the development teams to assist them in the “process” of developingtheir applications. You don’t *have* to have Team Foundation to create windows applications. But in the case of enterprise-level clients with a large development staff and a large number of players involved in the process, Team Foundation is certainly a necessity. As Eric Sink points out in what I like to call the “you took the words right out of my mouth” post, is that people may not truly understand what an MSDN subscription license gets you.
As you know (or at least you SHOULD know), my MSDN subscription doesn’t allow me to install my SQL Server edition for production usage. It’s purely for “development purposes only”. In the case of Team Foundation, what’s development and what’s production? If you installed Team Foundation for your development staff to use as part of your team process, that’s production and would go against the MSDN subscription EULA.
So what good does it do Microsoft to include Team Foundation in the MSDN subscription? So you can “play” with it to better understand it’s capabilities? That’s what trial versions are for. Microsofttypically goes beyond the standard 30–day trial periods on their server products on offers you a 180–day “try before you buy” period. That’s 6–months to wrap yourself around the product. How much more time do you need to “play” with the product?
And if you are truly interested in becoming a Team Foundation consultant and/or service provider, $3000 is a small amount to invest for the amount of money you’ll be making on your consulting engagements. Has anyonedone a price comparison against competing products? You’ll see right away that Microsoft comes in at a very attractive cost point compared to the others.
Here’s a little hint for the smaller shops who might be shell shocked at some of the pricing around Team Suite… DON’T PAY RETAIL! Look into volume licensing.
Also, for those of you disappointed that the unit testing features aren’t built into the base Visual Studio product, where are the accolades for them including the Class designer and not making it an “Architect only” feature?
As everyone can well imagine, due to recent events I won’t be able to present at tonight’s CNUG meeting. I want to thank Keith Franklin for stepping in a finding a couple of replacements. Thanks Derek and Raj! If anyone was just dying to find out more about Team System and the install process, drop me a line. I’d be more than happy to help out. Hopefully we can reschedule this session for April. I’d also be more than happy to schedule a *special* session if there was enough interest.
Don’t forget to add April 30th to your calendar for the the Day of .NET 6 event, where I’ll be presenting a couple of sessions around Team System (still being determined).
Wow! That was fast! Reached the hospital at 11:15PM, Baby “Girl†Bost II was born at 1:24AM in the morning. I was in the middle of posting an update when the doctor came in for the epidural, next thing I now,15 minutes to be exact,I have anotherbaby girl in my family. Wow! Mom and Baby are doing great.
Official measurements 19 1/4 inches and 6 pounds 6 oz.
I may still have time to make the CNUG meeting, but I think Kristi wouldn’t be all too happy about that. :)
[Update]: Brooke Ashley Bost
Dave Bost is a Technical Evangelist for Microsoft and co-host of the Thirsty Developer Podcast.
