Microsoft’s Visual Studio family has long offered powerful – but pricey – tools for those programming only for Windows platforms. Now (at least temporarily) amateur programmers, students etc. can get access to lightweight, easier-to-use versions with the new Visual Studio Express. Apparently they will retail for $49 (no UK pricing given) – but for the first year (specifically, until November 7th 2006) anyone who wants them can download any of the following for free:
- Visual Web Developer 2005 Express Edition
- SQL Server 2005 Express Edition
- Visual Basic 2005 Express Edition
- Visual C# 2005 Express Edition
- Visual C++ 2005 Express Edition
- Visual J# 2005 Express Edition
And the best part is that (unusually for this type of offer) you get to keep them after the offer period expires, although the catch will of course be that you’ll probably need to buy the new version to make programs for the Great Crap Elephant formerly known as Longhorn.