VB .Net licensing for micro businesses

[François]

Hi,

After looking up Microsoft's site for licensing info...and found nothing,
I turn to this newsgroup. Does someone know what version of VB .Net you are
entitled to use when you are
a micro business? I think I can't buy a VB .Net standard edition but I'm not
sure about it.

Also if I need to buy VB .Net Enterprise, how many licenses come with this,
one only?
Or does it work like SQL Server where you get 5 licenses automatically?

Thanks

 

[clintonG]

VB.NET SE cost $99 US and it is a single user license.

Microsoft sells SQL Server 2000 Developer Edition for $49.

If you want free you should find and dowload the Microsoft
Express products.

 

[Hal Rosser]

some folks try to go with open-source languages (java, php, python, perl,
C++, C, etc) for new businesses - because its free
but the license on the box spells it out - install on one computer only -
unless you go with site license or other license you specifically purchase.

 

[Brian Henry]

you don't have to buy anything to progam in VB.NET, or C#... the .NET
framework comes with all the compilers and linkers you need to do it with
out VS.NET

 

[Brian Henry]

VB.NET, C# are free also. they come for free with the .NET framework and
SDK... VS.NET is only an IDE you do not need the IDE to program and compile
VB.NET and C# code

 

[Herfried K. Wagner [MVP]]

If you want free you should find and dowload the Microsoft
Express products.

Notice that they are still betas and thus not intended for
productive/commercial use.

 

[craig]

then how do you write the code? You still need a VS Family product to
create the program, screens, etc and write the code.
Am I way off base here?

Also - VB.NET Standard works great for most applications - and even though
natively works with only MS DB's (Access, MSDE) I have found a MySql Adapter
and Oracle Adapter that work as well.

 

[Jay B. Harlow [MVP - Outlook]]

Craig,
You can use NotePad to write the Code! Create the Windows Form, Web Forms,
DataBase*, everything! VBC.EXE the compiler to create the actual .exe is
included in the framework itself!

All the VS Family of products do is give you nice designers to simplify and
make developers more productive, there is no requirement that says you have
to use the designers! In fact Charles Petzold's book "Programming Microsoft
Windows with Microsoft Visual Basic .NET" from MS Press is written with the
assumption you are NOT using VS.NET to create your forms! Which means you
can really learn how Forms work in .NET rather then how the designers do all
the work for you. Don't get me wrong I prefer to be productive & use the
designers, however I also like to know what the designers are doing for me
and against me ;-)

If you want FREE designers then you can use Web Matrix or Sharp Develop.

http://www.asp.net/webmatrix/

http://www.icsharpcode.net/OpenSource/SD/

Shared Develop only needs the Framework installed (it doesn't require the
SDK loaded) which means it will run on Windows 98!

* Note by Database I mean VB.NET code that works with the DataBase, not
necessarily the SQL or Access Database itself.

Hope this helps
Jay

 

[Hal Rosser]

Exactly-

then how do you write the code? You still need a VS Family product to
create the program, screens, etc and write the code.
Am I way off base here?

Also - VB.NET Standard works great for most applications - and even though
natively works with only MS DB's (Access, MSDE) I have found a MySql Adapter
and Oracle Adapter that work as well.

 

[craig]

Interesting to know. I never knew. Thanks for the insight.

 

[Dennis Powell]

Actually the question is wrong. "What version of VB .Net are you ENTITLED
to use when you are a micro business?" The only difference in the versions
are the tools and features that it comes with. You don't have to be a huge
corporation to get a license for the Enterprise Edition. Conversely, being
a small business doesn't limit you to only using the Standard Edition. The
only thing limitting you to the version you use is how much money you have
to spend and which features you need. In the case of Visual Studio .Net the
SERVERS that come with their own licensing which may include multiple
licenses for development and test purposes.

 

[François]

Hi Dennis,



First, thanks for taking some time to answer my question. Maybe my
message wasn't clear enough but what I tried

to say is that well, I heard somewhere that when you operate a small
business, you are not "allowed" to develop

applications using the standard edition but had to buy the enterprise
edition. To me, it didn't make sense. Like you said, why should I pay more
for extra development tools I won't necessarily need?!!?



From the answers I got previously, I need not worry about this altogether.
Looks like I can get the SDK for free off Microsoft and develop using some
open source IDE. That leaves me wondering though. Will I be able to
redistribute and charge for code I'll eventually develop with these tools
without having to worry that someday, someone will point at me
saying..."this guy doesn't have a valid license!!!"??? Is this way of
working legal???



Thanks again!

 

[Michael D. Ober]

In VS 2005, there will be IDE scaled down versions of the languages. These
are the "Express" versions and Beta 1 of each is freely available. Take a
look at http://lab.msdn.microsoft.com/express/ for more information.

Mike Ober.