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Microsoft Provides More Details About the Visual Studio 11 Product Lineup

May 21, 2012 Paul Thurrott | Paul Thurrott's Supersite for Windows

In a new post to the Visual Studio Blog, Microsoft has detailed more information about the Visual Studio 11 product editions and which platforms the new developer suite will support. The news comes on the heels of an announcement about coming major changes to the Visual Studio 11 user interface.

Visual Studio 11 will include the following product editions:

Express editions. As with previous Visual Studio versions, Microsoft will provide a number of free Visual Studio 11 Express editions that are aimed at specific languages (C#, Visual Basic, C++) or Microsoft platforms (Windows 8, Windows Phone). (Those who wish to use just specific languages outside of the platforms can use the legacy Visual Studio 2010 Express editions products, which will still be made available freely.)

Announced Express editions include:

Visual C# Express 11
Visual Basic Express 11
Visual C++ Express 11 (Visual C#, VB, and C++ Express 2010 still available)
Visual Studio 11 Express for Windows 8 (supports C#, Visual Basic, C++ and JavaScript)*
Visual Studio Express for Windows Phone
Visual Studio 11 Express for Web
(Plus some as yet unnamed Visual Studio 11 Express product for Windows Azure v.Next)

(* To create desktop applications for Windows 8, you need to use Visual Studio 11 Professional, or higher, Microsoft says.)

Paid editions. Microsoft had previously announced the following paid versions of Visual Studio 11 (prices include MSDN subscription):

Visual Studio 11 Professional $1,199 (renewal $799 per year)
Visual Studio 11 Test Professional $2,169 (renewal $899 per year)
Visual Studio 11 Premium $6,119 (renewal $2,569 per year)
Visual Studio 11 Ultimate $13,299  (renewal $4,249 per year)
Visual Studio 11 Team Foundation Server $499 (plus $499 per CAL)

(Visual Studio 11 Professional, Premium and Ultimate all include Lightswitch, which was previously available as an out-of-band, separate release.)

Microsoft also announced the hardware requirements for Visual Studio 11: They are exactly the same as with Visual Studio 2010, though you will need Windows 7 or Windows 8 to utilize the suites.

Update: I misunderstood the availability of language-specific Express products and corrected above. Thanks to everyone that wrote in. --Paul

Discuss this Article 5

d_johnst
on May 21, 2012
That post (http://blogs.msdn.com/b/visualstudio/archive/2012/05/18/a-look-ahead-at-...) actually states that there will be no Visual Studio 11 Express versions specifically for C#, Visual Basic, or C++. Language specific versions will only be available in the Express editions of Visual Studio 2010. If you look at the Visual Studio 11 Product page (http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/11/en-us/products), there is no mention of language-specific Express editions.
davidacoder
on May 21, 2012
That is incorrect, there won't be Express editions for C#, Visual Basic or C++. There will only be three free Express editions: Windows 8, Web and Phone. This is actually a major change from MS: for years they had free options to develop normal windows apps. They killed all of that, you can't even develop a free "hello world" console application anymore. I think this will have a major, major impact on the open source community because there are many projects that so far relied on a free VS edition...
rogerodell
on May 21, 2012
The pricing plan you outline includes the MSDN. According to their site you can get Professional without MSDN for 499
derpmagnet
on May 21, 2012
Those "Paid editions" prices look like MSDN subscription prices, not retail license prices.
Waethorn
on May 21, 2012
This kind of sucks. Previously, an LOB developer could pick up Lightswitch for a very low cost ($299). Now it seems that they'll have to pay almost double for Visual Studio Pro to upgrade to the new version. This is something that I don't like about the re-envisioned Microsoft: they are pricing SMB solutions out of the market. From the non-existant marketing of Smal Business Accounting (and resulting fallout for partner resellers after the program cancellation), to Small Business Server Standard (used to be about $600, now doubled), to private cloud solutions that don't fit into the SMB budget, to the new Small Business Competency fee hike and elimination of the Small Business Specialist Community, and now this. They are killing the market with a thousand swipes of the scimitar.

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