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MSDN Subscription Worth it?

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by jsfald

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I have mostly been using JAVA for my software/Web development but I see a good trend towards .NET so I wanted to start learning and developing in it.

An MSDN subscription looks pretty good to me, especially the MSDN Professional subscription. I don't want to drop $1200 though if it isn't worth it. (But getting .NET Studio and some servers to use looks enticing to me.)

For those that have purchased a substription for themselves or for those that have decided to not purchase it, would you recommend an MSDN subscription for .NET newbies or is there a better, less expensive way to get the learning environment needed to excel in .NET?

If I don't get a subsciption I would like to get my hands on a MS SQL server. Is there a free/cheap development version of it?

6 replies

by dr dij

there's the trial versions you can download, usually work for 120 days.

you can still access the msdn.microsoft.com website I think, the subscription is to send you disks and patches.

Unless you're a medium sized company, don't think you need it. If you can't afford visual studios, etc. get academic versions. basic .net version should be under $100. I got one free for eval of ms training videos.

all sorts of websites have tutorials and code examples. you can drop $400 and get online access to dozens of fulltext searchable books on .net at books24x7.com and mindleaders.com has vb training you can purchase as a package or separately for vb set of courses.

by zetacon4

Just download and install the free MSDE database engine. It's just SQL server with some of the Enterprise capabilities removed. Works just the same as SQL Server. You can even deploy it in small companies for live database serving free.
If they need to advance to the full Enterprise version, all your work and database data are good to go immediately! This option is often overlooked.

by ianhayn

If you are working with .Net 1.1 you could try Web Matrix, which is in many ways a cut-down version of VS. There are numerous tutorials and articles on using it.

If you're looking towards version 2 of the Net framework then you can download the latest beta of Visual Web Developer Express, (which is the natural sucessor to Web Matrix) or even the beta of VS 20005. You can also get SQL Server Express 2005 in beta.

by tjc_tek

goto http://www.microsoft.com/sql/msde
It is MicroSoft Desktop Engine.
It's a free 25-concurrent connection version. Trouble is, it dosen't have a user interface and requires command line to install. You can use Access 2000+ .adp to author the database. You'll need Enterprise Manager (which only comes with full version of SQL Server) or a third parth tool like www.TeraTrax.com to do DTS packages, etc. OR, download the BOL (Books On Line) and use the command line (OSQL) to do that stuff.

by Former member

To get your feet wet try Microsoft MSDE for your free SQL server and WebMatrix to develop .NET applications. There are lots of examples on the Web with these free tools to learn. Within a month or two you should know if you want to use the full scale tools. If not, no cost lost!

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