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Good Guy Microsoft

TheFuntasticTheFuntastic
edited in General
So Microsoft has been doing some awesome stuff lately, like making Visual Studio Tools For Unity free to all. Well now you can get Visual Studio Community edition for free as well! (It's basically VS pro for indie developers)

In addition they've also opened sourced the whole .NET toolchain. It's still unclear exactly how this will play out with Mono and if this will trickle over to Unity at all, but if you've ever considered Xamarin for Mono apps (not games) on mobile then this means you will finally be able to develop xamarin apps from VS without paying silly licence fees.

I also recently found out about the bizspark program for young start ups. Some pretty incredible support, including 3 years of free MSDN ultimate subscription. I've just joined and will see how it plays out, but basically it seems like you have access to pretty much any piece of Microsoft software.

In a way it's sign of the times, but from a developer tools perspective, Microsoft has consistently blown me away over the last few years!
Thanked by 5farsicon wogan Elyaradine AntiVoid Oneil_CT

Comments

  • SUGBOERIESUGBOERIE
    We applied for the bizpark program and got in. A fellow colleague did as well and also got it. It seems relatively easy to get in. I'm sure you'll get in.
  • woganwogan
    The open-sourcing of .NET is thanks to a lot of work done by Xamarin via Mono, so that'll only get stronger. I think it will filter through to Unity eventually, as they'll be able to support .NET 4.5 for more platforms - but in terms of making games themselves easier to build, I reckon not. It will be great (as a regular desktop app developer) to build on Windows and publish to OSX without having to touch XCode, that much I can say :P

  • AntiVoidAntiVoid
    "It's basically VS pro for indie developers"...

    WHAT'S THE CATCH?!!!

    ...it seems too good to be true!
  • dislekciadislekcia
    The catch is that the install is pretty damn huge. I've managed to find an ISO for VS Community 2013 that should be the correct free version - but trying to use the streaming installer actually broke my VS Express 2012 so that I couldn't work on Unity projects anymore (as in, couldn't use VS while installing the new one, which was going to take DAYS of download time).

    I'll update when I've got it working... Has anyone else managed yet? I'm super excited to finally get access to UnityVS!
  • ChippitChippit
    dislekcia said:
    The catch is that the install is pretty damn huge. I've managed to find an ISO for VS Community 2013 that should be the correct free version - but trying to use the streaming installer actually broke my VS Express 2012 so that I couldn't work on Unity projects anymore (as in, couldn't use VS while installing the new one, which was going to take DAYS of download time).
    The enormous iso was a surprise to me too. it's just under 5 times larger than the image for VS Ultimate 2012, for no apparent reason.
  • AntiVoidAntiVoid
    Even so I will always go ISO rather than these new blasted web installers kids use these days :P
  • farsiconfarsicon
    R1700 per month worth of Azure with BizSpark is not too bad either - for 3 years! XD
  • Kobusvdwalt9Kobusvdwalt9
    @dislekcia I used the small installer which downloads the rest of the files and mine took like 4-5 hours on a 1mb line. I dont know what you mean by HUGE but to me there is nothing funny about that time. I should note that I had VS13 Express installed to begin with.
  • dislekciadislekcia
    Kobusvdwalt9 said:
    @dislekcia I used the small installer which downloads the rest of the files and mine took like 4-5 hours on a 1mb line. I dont know what you mean by HUGE but to me there is nothing funny about that time. I should note that I had VS13 Express installed to begin with.
    Nah, the issue was not being able to work while the download was happening with the streaming installer. Losing 4-5 hours of a day in the office like that is a dealbreaker of note.

  • TheFuntasticTheFuntastic
    In fairness download size is really just a problem for us South Africans. ;)

    The other catch is VS community has a different EULA. Cant remember what the limits are, but probably team size and revenue. Otherwise it's a totally fucking fantastic offering. Well done Microsoft!

    Also I started a Bizspark associated entrepreneurial course over the last two days. While the course itself is a bit primitive, the Bizspark program in general is pretty fucking awesome. Not only is there incredible software support, but there is great business support and programs throughout the whole start up lifecycle. Eg if your startup takes off they can increase the azure offering up to $60000 worth. Also was very excited to see things like assistance for business registration, PAYE UIF registration etc. having just gone through the pain of doing these things, I can say you totally don't want to do this if it at all can be helped.

    I don't know exactly what Dave Russel is up to and how this fits in here, but it's seems to be an awesome program and would advise anyone getting to the company stage checks it out.
  • KarujiKaruji
    The EULA diff is that your team is 5 or less, and that you earn under a net income of $1million or less.
  • DaveRussellSADaveRussellSA
    Hi All

    The download size is definitely a pain and we are working to find another solution to this problem. We used to run a program where we had community hdd which we would update monthly which people could share but that was abused originally. We are also looking at having toaster devices where you can grab all the iso's from.

    Quick question would you prefer a community HDD approach or do you think that a toaster at each of the MS offices in Jhb, Dbn and CT would help solve this problem?

    I will be making some announcements on the program I am working on once I have finished engaging with some more people. Expect me to announce something in Dec early Jan.

    If you need any other help with Bizspark, VS, or MS stuff just DM me or mail me at drussell@microsoft.com

    PS. please be gentle with the UnityVS plugin its great although doing things like ShaderLab is a bit limited. We are working on it to make it amazing.
    Thanked by 3konman Chippit JustPlainInsane
  • AntiVoidAntiVoid
    DaveRussellSA said:


    We used to run a program where we had community hdd which we would update monthly which people could share but that was abused originally. We are also looking at having toaster devices where you can grab all the iso's from.

    Quick question would you prefer a community HDD approach or do you think that a toaster at each of the MS offices in Jhb, Dbn and CT would help solve this problem?
    If you were accessing it over the internet, the speed would be the same as downloading it from Microsoft. So what's the point?
  • JustPlainInsaneJustPlainInsane
    Okay so downloaded VS community 2013, and updated unity as well, set the preferences to point to the new version(check to where the shortcut points for the new VS) and loads up when I click on my scripts within unity. Still need to to play around with the debugging along with the UnityVS plugin. So far all looks good. Thanks MS; So now my nighttime game dev got a little easier (was running express previously). PS: thanks for the heads up Dave on UnityVS plugin
  • ChippitChippit
    DaveRussellSA said:
    PS. please be gentle with the UnityVS plugin its great although doing things like ShaderLab is a bit limited. We are working on it to make it amazing.
    For those interested, there does exist a VS plugin that adds (fairly) rudimentary syntax highlighting for shaderlab files that I've been using for quite some time (about as long as I've been using UnityVS), and it's pretty serviceable. I have something better for SublimeText that I prefer to use, when given the choice, but it all works! I can find out what it's called tomorrow.

    Once VSTU finishes up its promised shaderlab stuff, though, I'm certain that will be the best way to go about it.
  • DaveRussellSADaveRussellSA
    Hi Antivoid,

    We would be making it available pre-downloaded, ie. no waiting for it to download just copy it to a drive from the machine.
  • AntiVoidAntiVoid
    Oh I see. You mean you'd be on the same local network. Then that makes sense :)
  • Oneil_CTOneil_CT
    @TheFuntastic @DaveRussellSA Have been thinking about joining bizspark for sometime now.
    Are there any local(Cape Town) Microsoft consultants that would be willing to discuss my options further?
  • Oneil_CTOneil_CT
    @JustPlainInsane Out of interest, what OS are you on? 8.1 or 8?
  • DaveRussellSADaveRussellSA
    Hi oneil_ct the team does travel to ct quite often but happy if you drop us a mail. Drussell@microsoft.com

    I am running windows 10
  • Oneil_CTOneil_CT
    Thanks @DaveRusselSA
    Will do.
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