They charge for that? Seriously?
I have always been under the impression that the Developer Edition of SQL Server 2005 was free for development use. In fact, I'm pretty sure that was the case at some point. However, as I was informed by the MSDN Online Concierge today, it does require a license. Oh, and by the way, the license is not included with your MSDN Premium Subscription.
It makes no sense to me to charge for the development edition. As Nate pointed out, even Oracle with all its bloat is free for development use, but never mind that. In an effort to show my dismay, I resorted to a childish display of sarcasm which I thought was sure to elicit a free license. After all, it's only $50 we're talking about. However, as the following chat excerpt shows, no such luck:
4:50:39 AM | You | The SQL Server Developer edition is not included in Visual Studio Professional with MSDN Premium. | ||||
| 4:51:07 AM | Bryn | Wow. | ||||
| 4:51:31 AM | Bryn | And just when I was starting think SQL Server was a good alternative to MySQL. | ||||
| 4:51:58 AM | Bryn | So let me get this straight, Microsoft wants to discourage me from developing solutions for their technologies? | ||||
| 4:53:23 AM | You | No, if you buy a Visual Studio Developer, or above Edition with MSDN Premium you can get SQL Server Developer edition. | ||||
| 4:54:55 AM | Bryn | Okay, I'll start looking for a different technology. Thanks. | ||||
| 4:55:10 AM | You | You're welcome. |
I guess I'll have to try harder next time :)
Bryn
Comments
PostgreSQL is a good alternative to MySQL and MS SQL Server.
Posted by: Leandro Guimarães Faria Corcete DUTRA | April 17, 2008 04:30 AM