Moments ago Microsoft launched WebsiteSpark, a new program to provide web developers and designers free copies of Microsoft development tools, applications and server licenses for a period of three years. The program is the third and latest launch as part of the ’spark’ series of outreach and support programs designed to engage communities with new Microsoft products. The initial programs to launch were BizSpark, for startups, and DreamSpark, for students.
The WebsiteSpark program announced today provides eligible individuals or organizations with 3-year licenses of Visual Studio 2008, Expression Studio, Expression Web (also part of studio), Windows Web Server, SQL Server and DotNetPanel. To be eligible, an organization or individual developer must be in the business of building web applications or websites for others (ie. clients) and also have no more than 10 employees.
I recall as a young developer constantly bitching about the cost of development tools, which was a real barrier of entry. Microsoft bundled QBASIC with DOS, which spawned a whole generation of developers, but for those who were looking to learn further there was a real commercial barrier because of the price of good compilers and tools. Most of us ended up ripping these tools off by downloading them – which meant that we all became familiar with certain tools (like the old VC++) and then ended up getting real jobs where we would use them. Microsoft have obviously caught on and have realized that they need to lower the barrier for some parts of the market (as with academic discounts) in order to bring Microsoft tools, and in-turn platforms/servers (and services!), into development shops and to developers.
There is a broader motive here – Microsoft want to eventually sell you on the entire platform. But who cares, because frankly, their developer tools have long been the best available (queue flame war). I could never have imagined such programs coming out of Microsoft all that long ago, especially combined with support for more open source (PHP), supporting an open implementation of the entire .NET platform and executives like Scott Guthrie who are not only blogging, put publishing their email addresses so that anybody who has a problem signing up with the program can email him (it is scottgu@microsoft.com, btw).
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Can’t we stop SPAM on TC? Mike, are you listening?
Don’t SPAM TC….
BTW, free copies of Microsoft development tools, applications and server licenses for a period of three years!
A good offer for budding web developers.
Hope TC does something about the spammers.
My company participates in BizSpark, and as a startup we’re very appreciative of the generosity Microsoft has shown. I think Website Spark is a subset of BizSpark, which gives us the entire MSDN catalog, not just web development software + database servers. We also get discounts from GoDaddy (the hosting company we chose as our ’sponsor’).
I think the forum and blogs lead a little to be desired, as most of the content seems to be written by Msft employees and not experienced entreprenuers. And, there’s not cohesion with Channel 9 or other resources that could make it feel more like a community.
I think Sun has a similar offer, but clearly not as comprehensive. I applaud Microsoft for doing this. Yes, I know their ultimate goal is driving more software sales. But to give startups 3yrs time to use their platform for free is pretty cool and shows alot of confidence.
That is vendor lock-in.
If a startup uses a software platform like MSFT for 3 years, you will never change it to Free Software ever.
The average life of a startup is say 5 years, you just paid 2 years lic fees and cut the competition for 5 years. This is good game for an incumbent monopoly.
(I am very neutral person. Just wanted to state what MSFT SVP and SteveB LT view is).
Free Software only works in a few very select cases. Developers need to get paid, and Free Software, being not only free of charge, but free to modify, offers very limited monetization opportunities. So this notion that all software needs to be driven to a Free Software status is nonsense.
They will never change because the tools from Microsoft are years ahead of any comparable open/free solution.
Plus, anything you can do on the web with a MS tool you can do cross-platform with Mono. It’s not like MS is locking you into proprietary formats that nobody supports.
It’s not 100% free – there’s no up front cost, but they’ll invoice you for $100 at the end of the three years. Also note this from their terms and conditions:
“To be eligible to continue to participate in the Program, the company must deploy a new public and Internet-accessible website developed using Program software within 6 months from Program enrollment, and report it and other new websites through the WebsiteSpark Portal.”
Compared with the open source stack it’s not such a great deal
Are you kidding me ?
- 3 licenses of Visual Studio 2008 Professional Edition
- 1 license of Expression Studio 3 (which includes Expression Blend, Sketchflow, and Web)
- 2 licenses of Expression Web 3
- 4 processor licenses of Windows Web Server 2008 R2
- 4 processor licenses of SQL Server 2008 Web Edition
- DotNetPanel control panel (enabling easy remote/hosted management of your servers)
For $100 bucks – $33 a year. And its “not such a great deal”? I think you need your head checked.
Are you kidding me?
- unlimited licenses of Eclipse
- unlimited licenses of Apache Server
- unlimited licenses of MySQL Server
- unlimited flexibility to shift to other cool stuff like Ror, Tornado or whatever is technical trendy.
For 0 bucks a year and more after 3 years.
I am so tired of this argument. If you don’t use MS products, fine. great. We are happy that you are happy. Please stop trying to convert us. If, like me, you do use MS products then this is a good deal (as Tom points out).
Some of us may even use both MS and Open Source tools. No kidding. Sometimes you use the tools most fit for the job at hand.
I don’t deny that it’s a great deal if you already use Microsoft products, but if you don’t this is hardly a reason to start.
+1
LAMP has been there for years. MS is very scared of that, hence these give-aways.
Why would anyone starting out lock themselves in to MS products…?
How can getting all these tools for $100 (after 3 years) not be a good reason to start?
Thousands of people pay full price and still make a very handsome living using these tools so getting them for free* is a perfect reason to start!
The idea of this program is for people that want to grow and expand their business; giving them truly enterprise tools for free while they get their feet. Great Stuff, I’d just say thanks and give them a try – you may not know what you’re missing.
MySQL is nowhere *near* SQL Server in any capability.
There are people who advocated schema-less data architecture simply because rebuilding indexes on MySQL can take days.
Last time I worked with MySQL it even couldn’t back up data in any form except plain text unless I pay (http://bit.ly/11KCeC) for it.
When I worked with MySQL it was slow even when I *memorized* MySQL Performance Blog. I finally switched to free DB2 and it just worked. Without days spent on config and optimization.
And SQL Server is even better than DB2 (especially its tools).
The licensing details, including the need to report new websites every few months, really make it not worthwhile. The hassle and time costs money.
Microsoft development tools… What a joke.
Free wont cut it, guys, you need to pay _me_ to use that junk.
you present a compelling argument that I will ponder
Even as an OSS advocate I find his argument lacking.
But I also have enough sense to know two preachy sentences won’t change a mind, so that might have something to do with it.
Spoken like a guy who has never used a Microsoft IDE.
They seem to finally have realised one of the essential problems of the Windows platform: It doesn’t appeal to developers.
While on any UNIX (like Mac OS X) or UNIX-like (like Linux) platform you get all the native development tools you could ever want for free – most of them already pre-installed, on Windows you have to deal with workarounds like Cygwin and use expensive compilers.
Even then you have to fight with idiosyncratic compatibility problems that sometimes even make Rails or Java web apps behave differently on the Windows platform.
So, unless you’re developing for the .NET platform or Windows-only client apps, Windows is the worst platform for developing software.
You have to be kidding me. There are more people developing software on windows that any other platform.
If anything UNIX/Linux is by for the worst because hardly anyone uses it.
People using it doesn’t make it any better. One of the first things CS students are told nowadays is to install Cygwin if they happen to be using Windows.
Most of them, however, switch to some proper UNIX OS later on anyway.
Not so, unless by ’software’ you mean ‘desktop software’.
How many web software developers do you know that use Windows as the system of choice, not against their own will? I know zero.
Guess what? I know lots
I know of many, myself included.
Do not confuse development platform with deployment platform. I know very few developers that use Linux/Unix as a development platform.
Most developers that I know are using Windows as the development platform and deploying to a Linux environment.
I would think certainly if you are a web developer and need the windows versions of FireFox and IE for front-end web app testing.
This is the funniest thing ever. If you know zero web developers using Windows then you need to leave your parents basement and move into the sunlight dude. I did all my web sites in PHP, MySQL on Apache/Linux until I saw how much more productive I could be with ASP.net, IIS, and SQL Server on Windows. I have never looked back or missed any of those open source tools. (and believe me I tried everything from Zend IDE to Eclipse) Now I just create all my sites with dotnetnuke on Windows. Believe me there are one or two others choosing Windows. lol
Are you kidding me?
BTW, I know a lot about MSFT than you want to know.
Ask, MSFT dev folks what they choose to create large scale services-
They hate IIS- bloats
They hate ASP.NET
They hate Microsoft Project
They try to avoid SQL server. (That is why WLS/Reddog, COSMOS and other projects)
What they use-
1. HTTP.sys and pure HTTP bindings and some runtime lib framework for services
2. Some TFS or just sharepoint/Excel for project tracking
3. Avoid WSDL Web Services bindings and prefer hand coded comm stack using WCF
You know where I am going, right?
What MSFT wants you to buy is NOT used internally.
ZuneHD does not use Silverlight for UI. Internal folks hate Zune MarketPlace.
I would argue with you mankind but you seem like the same type of guy that physically threatened me and my friend on Facebook for not agreeing with his politics. I don’t care if Microsoft even eats their own dog food, the products mentioned work fine for me and millions of others is the point. The other items you mention like TFS (which I use and support at work) are still Microsoft products. If you told me Microsoft internal was using Ruby on rails on Apache/Linux now that would make me wonder.
“They seem to finally have realised one of the essential problems of the Windows platform: It doesn’t appeal to developers.”
Reality fail.
short answer… how many millions of apps have been written for Windows? Since VB first came out lots of people liked developing on Windows
Umm….just a few strings attached. Cut those strings and you may have a shot with it as there are some cool tools there.
try bizspark or the other programs. or just email scott with what you want/need.
JakeDHT is right. The misleading title as to be corrected.
It’s not even gratis, you have to pay.
Wow. I can’t believe you said Microsoft has the best developer tools. Anyone who has used C# and .Net knows that they have really done a good job compared to php, java, and python. I’d never go back.
ASP.Net has its days. Visual Studio is such a powerful developer debugging and development tool. Same for SQL Server.
Of course the costs meant that as a company you have to say my developer’s time is valuable vs I’m hiring a bunch of code monkeys.
3 years of free? That’s pretty intense though. Shows how long-term the company thinks.
http://www.trad...spx?symbol=msft
Is it safe to assume that any web development performed with these tools (I’ve never used them) will be Windows or IE-only and completely incompatible with web standards?
We’ve made huge investments embracing web standards both from a tools and client perspective. If you build an ASP.NET web application with Visual Studio it will require Windows / IIS for hosting (hence the Web Server licences) but it’s certainly not IE-only. Your app will work with all popular browsers.
Expression Web supports PHP development (as well as HTML / ASP.NET). If PHP’s your thing, it happens to run brilliantly on Windows / IIS. If you can’t run on Windows, Mono is always another option. We’ve also been busy with open source and interop. Quite a number of our web platform components are open source (eg ASP.NET MVC one of our most significant recent releases).
The .NET Framework (and ASP.NET) have always been free-of-charge. We have also made free of charge versions of Visual Studio available for some years.
WebsiteSpark makes licences available for a number of products. These licences would typically cost a significant amount but under WebsiteSpark, providing you meet the conditions, you pay a very low fee and the charge is deferred.
http://www.asp....t/mvc/download/
http://www.micr...ft.com/interop/
http://www.mono-project.com/
Not at all. Tools are tools. What you choose to do with them are up to you.
These things require .NET Framework, which limits you to running Server 2003 or Server 2008 and IIS rather than Linux and Apache. But that’s just on the server end of things – what you create is viewable by anyone.
ASP.NET WebForms still have some weird controls that, while they are cross-browser compatible, aren’t exactly semantic but that ought to be changing with the next release.
ASP.NET MVC gives you full control over your output.
Nice move. Infact they should come up with this long back as if people student uses there products and devlop on there products they will for sure get used to with them
Man one thing for sure; once you get used to MS products (ok and cancel kinda) it would be tough to work on other FREE software.
This move will pay MS in a long run.
I started my business software company on a similar offering Microsoft had in the 1990s, and the low price and the bumpy-but-progressive platform improvements helped beat out IBM and many open source competitors along the way.
I do wish Microsoft would fix its problems with Visual Studio and TFS which undercut the conventional wisdom that Microsoft has superior development tools. Those tools work great for dying technologies like winforms and web 1.0 but for WPF and web 2.0, not so much.
Visual Studio crashes five times a day in the XAML editor and don’t get me started on the screen designers.
The free offering for startups makes good business sense but it’s not new and it’s not compelling without rapid improvement.
Funnily enough this product aimed at Web Developers wasn’t developed that great for the Web, looky here…
http://fourleav...-one-microsoft/
I have read about the BiZspark previously and even wrote about it on a blog about a year ago. Good to see Microsoft expanding the services to other groups.
nice.. supperb..
I use both open source and ms tools. This program is awesome in what it is offering. I am using express versions now, but might not for long.
Obviously there is a lot of ignorance especially from people who are not familiar with visual studio and what it is offering. For good rails development for example you need to buy good tool like aptana or rubymine which has attracted my attention lately. So good tools do cost and that is totally ok from my perspective, I mean I do make money using them.
Most web devs are using Win, even on a Mac, so …
Hey guys,
You’re missing a critical point here – free software ($100 after 3 years) is only the start. We’re providing free training, free support – and we’re also creating a marketplace to actually DRIVE business to your business – and Microsoft is actively going to be promoting this marketplace through all of our channels (field evangelists, marketing campaigns, conferences, etc) –
Software is just the beginning – it’s the business we’re going to be driving to you to help make smaller web companies successful. We’ve got a great network of partners, customers, and more – and we want to help get the word out about your business TO them
Thanks,
Lauren Cooney
Web Platform & Standards
Microsoft
And up to this date, Microsoft has consistently fucked over everybody once they’re well and truly locked into Microsoft’s closed ecosystem.
What makes this any different?
The average business may fall for this scam, but most tech-savvy web development shops know better. We’ll gladly use Microsoft stuff (and pay for it) if it’s open enough we can use it whenever and wherever we want, and most of all, ditch it whenever we want.
The rest is just the usual drug pusher strategy.
NaviSite is proud to be a Microsoft WebsiteSpark Hosting partner. We are excited to work with Web Design and Web professional in their quest to design/build the next generation of Websites and Web applications.
Eligible Web Agencies and Web Professionals who wish to be nominated for the program can do so through a Network Partner, through NaviSite at this link: http://dedicate...s/websitespark/ NaviSite or Microsoft’s Website.
Important to note that after 3 years, if you want to continue using the tools/server licenses, you need to purchase them.
“Program members will no longer have rights to use the WebsiteSpark Program Software. However, at the conclusion of their participation in WebsiteSpark, program members will have had the benefit of the WebsiteSpark experience, better equipped to determine the Microsoft technologies that best fits their business needs.”
So if you deployed dohickeys.com for your client Acme Corp under the impression your license of SQL Server would only cost you $100, yeah, well… that’s not going to work out.
It’s a good program, no doubt, but “it’s only $100!” is misleading.
I’ve been saying the same thing for years (and getting lots of eye rolls). The MSDN licenses was one of the smartest moves by a software company, period. If you remember when Borland was bigger than MSFT (yeah, Borland who? Delphi what?) you had to pay $3500 for the delphi license stand alone, and that was only development – no database, nothing else. Everything else cost $2500+ per. You’d easily spend $10k per developer just to get him to her/his suite of tools. Along comes MSFT and for $2500 a developer has everything s/he could possibly need, and much much more. This entrenched developers so that there (at Delphi’s crux before its wane) 10million developers to every 1m delphi devs. Open source mitigitated this somewhat, but there are plenty of companies who still don’t trust “open source” (yeah yeah) tools to build their software (although this is slowly changing). Then they tirelessly supported user groups through INETA and others and slathered devs with free stuff (in all fairness Sun used to for a while too as well as BEA tried hard).
Aside, I wonder how license costs actually affected development in poorer countries. Even $2500 is a huge cost in countries like India to a small team working in a garage…. no wonder the piracy rates are/were so high.
Still, bundling was one of the smartest moves by a software tools company ever. One place to plop in new tools, vendor lock-in and comfort, upgrades, and unleash an army of MSFT devs into the world.
Beneficial program for all parties. Good marketing way to promote Microsoft product too.
Great work microsoft, I think microsoft is feeling the pinch as developers are using the open source softwares, but microsoft IDE is the best still
Thanks MS
wait – isn’t gratis just spanish for free?
btw, by your definition the GPL is not free either
WTF? “Launch’s”? As in “belonging to Launch”? Or perhaps you can learn to speak English and say “Launches” which is “plural of Launch”.
Remember kid’s: JakeDTH say’s that word’s ending in an “S” alway’s need’s apostrophe’s.
I too guessed it was free. By the way, why is MS all of sudden doing this release? Why this push all of a sudden? What made them wake up?
‘gratis’ is also German.
The correct term is “Freeware”. Not to be confused with free software. Freeware (from “free” and “software”) is computer software that is available for use at no cost or for an optional fee
Free software, software libre or libre software is software that can be used, studied, and modified without restriction, and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodified form either without restriction, or with minimal restrictions only to ensure that further recipients can also do these things and that manufacturers of consumer-facing hardware allow user modifications to their hardware. Free software is available gratis (free of charge) in most cases.
(both definitions taken from Wikipedia)
Sudden? They’ve been doing this for years. I think the express editions came out in 2005 or 6.
I got VS.NET for the DreamSpark program, a year and a half ago. It’s only common sense. Students and recent graduates don’t have the means to buy their expensive software. Adobe, Oracle and yes, Microsoft have been doing that for years.
gratis is also in Bahasa Indonesia.
Wow this is the most pointless comment thread I’ve read in a long time. Way to not see the forest for the trees.
Good article Nik. I’m a member of their BizSpark program and I have to say it really has warmed my heart toward Microsoft. So much so that I might even consider buying their software in the future! Luckily I have 3 years before making that decision
.