Visual Studio 2015 Final Release Event(visualstudio.com)
visualstudio.com
Visual Studio 2015 Final Release Event
https://www.visualstudio.com/visualstudio-release-event-vs
56 comments
I don't understand the reasoning behind that at all.
OK, MS wants our data. So do Apple, Google, FB. No news. But they already have everything: The user (MS account) when downloading VS. The id of the copy (serial number or whatever), all kind of information related to the Windows Version, the currently logged in user, machine data, ... VS or Windows can collect usage data, etc.
Why do they want me to sign in VS? They already have it all, don't they?
Or are there simpler (less paranoid :-)) reasons?
OK, MS wants our data. So do Apple, Google, FB. No news. But they already have everything: The user (MS account) when downloading VS. The id of the copy (serial number or whatever), all kind of information related to the Windows Version, the currently logged in user, machine data, ... VS or Windows can collect usage data, etc.
Why do they want me to sign in VS? They already have it all, don't they?
Or are there simpler (less paranoid :-)) reasons?
It is tied to your MSDN account and TFS Online (*which supports Git by the way) account. Upon signing in, you have access to all of your company's shared projects and there is no need to enter any serial number(s).
Microsoft are trying to move away from boxed software and into software as a service. Linking everything into your MSDN account is one way to "tick" that box.
In 2013 at least, there is a "enter serial" button (forget the exact wording) and you can simply grab a ye' olde serial from your MSDN account and plop it in. But doing so breaks TFS Online (since that relies on your Microsoft Account/MSDN Account for permissions to access projects).
But if you'd prefer not to use TFS Online then just use GitHub. Visual Studio supports it. Heck GitHub even released a funky extension to make it just that much easier (and that too requires you to login to an account).
Microsoft are trying to move away from boxed software and into software as a service. Linking everything into your MSDN account is one way to "tick" that box.
In 2013 at least, there is a "enter serial" button (forget the exact wording) and you can simply grab a ye' olde serial from your MSDN account and plop it in. But doing so breaks TFS Online (since that relies on your Microsoft Account/MSDN Account for permissions to access projects).
But if you'd prefer not to use TFS Online then just use GitHub. Visual Studio supports it. Heck GitHub even released a funky extension to make it just that much easier (and that too requires you to login to an account).
Why?
Simply to assert their self-assigned rights over everything that you write, think and do and to line up ready to easily collect the drip feed of cash they want from everyone.
For this they trade you semi-functional software, vague promises that are usually broken and marketing hype.
That's how all "ecosystems" work.
Which is why I'm not in one for my personal stuff. At work however, they're lining up like good cows for the next milking. They've forgotten that SQL 2014 cost and the Azure price rise already...
Simply to assert their self-assigned rights over everything that you write, think and do and to line up ready to easily collect the drip feed of cash they want from everyone.
For this they trade you semi-functional software, vague promises that are usually broken and marketing hype.
That's how all "ecosystems" work.
Which is why I'm not in one for my personal stuff. At work however, they're lining up like good cows for the next milking. They've forgotten that SQL 2014 cost and the Azure price rise already...
You sound like you'd be more comfortable in another "ecosystem"?
> Not a massive fan of "...all versions of Visual Studio 2013 and 2015 will require you to sign in using a Microsoft account..." though. [source: from an email]
You don't need to sign in if you specify a retail product key [1].
[1] http://sanderstechnology.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/imag...
You don't need to sign in if you specify a retail product key [1].
[1] http://sanderstechnology.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/imag...
From the same email: "If you have already downloaded Visual Studio 2013 and save your product key prior to the release of Visual Studio 2015 on July 20, you will be able to continue using Visual Studio 2013..."
Guess we'll have to wait and see what actually transpires but I hope they don't require login. Sometime I like to code offline and I don't want to get locked out of my IDE.
Guess we'll have to wait and see what actually transpires but I hope they don't require login. Sometime I like to code offline and I don't want to get locked out of my IDE.
Are they going to push an update for VS2013 that will require an active subscription? Like Adobe's Creative Cloud?
This happened to me a few years ago. The activation blew on my Win7 machine when I was without internet for about 6 weeks. I phoned it through in the end which was an eye opener.
If I had to sign in to use software I'd be fecked in this situation again. Made me re-evaluate things pretty sharpish.
If I had to sign in to use software I'd be fecked in this situation again. Made me re-evaluate things pretty sharpish.
Damn, so the reasoning is that MS wants to force us to be connected to the internet?
That's changing in 2015, you need to sign in according to the email they sent out this morning.
I haven't seen the email but I find that policy from MS hard to believe.
Considering the backlash they got with always-connected XBOX ONE and their subsequent backpedaling[1] after the criticism... plus the fact that many government programmers' computers cannot connect to the public internet, that type of requirement seems draconian. Does MS expect government programmers with security clearances not to be customers of VS2015?
[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xbox_One#Pre-release
Considering the backlash they got with always-connected XBOX ONE and their subsequent backpedaling[1] after the criticism... plus the fact that many government programmers' computers cannot connect to the public internet, that type of requirement seems draconian. Does MS expect government programmers with security clearances not to be customers of VS2015?
[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xbox_One#Pre-release
The relevant part of the email is below:
Going forward, you will need to sign in to Visual Studio 2013 and 2015 with the Microsoft account associated with your active MSDN subscription through BizSpark.
BIZSPARK GRADUATION CHANGES: BizSpark members who complete the graduation process after 3 years in the program can keep most of the software downloaded through the program. However, because all versions of Visual Studio 2013 and 2015 will require you to sign in using a Microsoft account associated with an active MSDN subscription, startups will need to renew their MSDN subscriptions for each user running Visual Studio after graduation. BizSpark members have access to discounted MSDN subscriptions as part of their Graduation Offers. If you decide not to renew your MSDN subscriptions after graduation, you can still use one of these free editions: Visual Studio Community and Visual Studio Code.
If you have already downloaded Visual Studio 2013 and save your product key prior to the release of Visual Studio 2015 on July 20, you will be able to continue using Visual Studio 2013 after you graduate. You can find more information about graduation here.
So if you grab a license key before July 20th for VS2013, you can keep using it after your MSDN expires, but you can't keep using VS2015.
Maybe this is just Bizspark though, and doesn't apply to normal MSDN subscriptions.
Going forward, you will need to sign in to Visual Studio 2013 and 2015 with the Microsoft account associated with your active MSDN subscription through BizSpark.
BIZSPARK GRADUATION CHANGES: BizSpark members who complete the graduation process after 3 years in the program can keep most of the software downloaded through the program. However, because all versions of Visual Studio 2013 and 2015 will require you to sign in using a Microsoft account associated with an active MSDN subscription, startups will need to renew their MSDN subscriptions for each user running Visual Studio after graduation. BizSpark members have access to discounted MSDN subscriptions as part of their Graduation Offers. If you decide not to renew your MSDN subscriptions after graduation, you can still use one of these free editions: Visual Studio Community and Visual Studio Code.
If you have already downloaded Visual Studio 2013 and save your product key prior to the release of Visual Studio 2015 on July 20, you will be able to continue using Visual Studio 2013 after you graduate. You can find more information about graduation here.
So if you grab a license key before July 20th for VS2013, you can keep using it after your MSDN expires, but you can't keep using VS2015.
Maybe this is just Bizspark though, and doesn't apply to normal MSDN subscriptions.
>Maybe this is just Bizspark though, and doesn't apply to normal MSDN subscriptions.
Yes, the BizSpark situation would be understandable. In that case, dev teams of startup companies are getting 3 years of free (or $100?) Microsoft software. It is to be expected for some quid pro quo to happen: MS lets you use software for free -- and you in turn, are required to actively sign in.
That's a different situation from retail/enterprise MSDN subscriptions. Enterprise customers such as corporations and government are not intended for BizSpark so it wouldn't make sense to punish those paying customers with draconian login requirements. In any case, many of those enterprise customers behind firewalls can't connect to the internet.
Yes, the BizSpark situation would be understandable. In that case, dev teams of startup companies are getting 3 years of free (or $100?) Microsoft software. It is to be expected for some quid pro quo to happen: MS lets you use software for free -- and you in turn, are required to actively sign in.
That's a different situation from retail/enterprise MSDN subscriptions. Enterprise customers such as corporations and government are not intended for BizSpark so it wouldn't make sense to punish those paying customers with draconian login requirements. In any case, many of those enterprise customers behind firewalls can't connect to the internet.
I think it's just Bizspark as MS will continue to sell VS 2015 Pro without a MSDN subscription (it's hidden in the Q&A section near the bottom of https://www.visualstudio.com/en-us/products/vs-2015-product-...).
Probably implies that at least the IDE only (no subscription) version will not require signing in.
Probably implies that at least the IDE only (no subscription) version will not require signing in.
It's weird they specify Visual Studio Professional though, what about Enterprise?
As a developer, I often sell "enterprise" services at 1000x the price, with specific features. There's probably a "government pricing" for such usage.
Umm.. I don't think that is true. I use VS2013 for work and it only asks for that during the first time launch and provides a "skip for now" link at the bottom. The behavior is same even with community edition.
Yeah but if you don't sign in, it will stop working after a few days.
It's 90 or 120 days and I believe that's only going to be required for the free Community Edition. Pro and Ultimate level users won't have to sign in.
Remember, this is Microsoft we're talking about here, which means we've got about 50/50 chance of only half the company actually following through and implementing this ;)
Do not, under any circumstance, underestimate the sheer insanity of any Microsoft licensing scheme. At my new $dayjob, they spend $1-2MM/year on Microsoft licenses and support, and it's taken close to 9 months to get Microsoft to fix some incorrectly issued licenses. Not to mention, Microsoft has rolled out some new license portal that only like TWO people know about at Microsoft, so a bunch of shiny new licenses (to the tune of $750K) went "missing" because no one, even our Microsoft rep, apparently knew about the new portal which the licenses had been created in (and which, in fine Microsoft tradition, does not support any of our old licenses...)
As the only linux guy here, it is astounding, absolutely astounding to me, how many man hours are wasted just dealing with Microsoft licensing. They probably could have ported their entire stack to open source alternatives in the time it's taken just to get our SQL Server licenses straightened out. But I get the feeling that being a Microsoft shop means you have to develop Stockholm Syndrome just to make it through your day, or else you'd go mad from dealing with Microsoft and their VARs.
Do not, under any circumstance, underestimate the sheer insanity of any Microsoft licensing scheme. At my new $dayjob, they spend $1-2MM/year on Microsoft licenses and support, and it's taken close to 9 months to get Microsoft to fix some incorrectly issued licenses. Not to mention, Microsoft has rolled out some new license portal that only like TWO people know about at Microsoft, so a bunch of shiny new licenses (to the tune of $750K) went "missing" because no one, even our Microsoft rep, apparently knew about the new portal which the licenses had been created in (and which, in fine Microsoft tradition, does not support any of our old licenses...)
As the only linux guy here, it is astounding, absolutely astounding to me, how many man hours are wasted just dealing with Microsoft licensing. They probably could have ported their entire stack to open source alternatives in the time it's taken just to get our SQL Server licenses straightened out. But I get the feeling that being a Microsoft shop means you have to develop Stockholm Syndrome just to make it through your day, or else you'd go mad from dealing with Microsoft and their VARs.
I'll give a quick alternate perspective: I'm 2.5-3 years into my career, and have only worked at small 100% cloud (AWS, then Azure) based businesses. It's been wonderful.. I love my VS/R# combo, and the extreme ease of setting up lots of services on Azure quickly. Certainly a much more productive and enjoyable development experience than I had in 4 years of *nix-only college work.
If people who like Microsoft-quality tools are suffering "Stockholm Syndrome", what should we call ideologues who consistently eschew high-quality tools and interfaces for openness?
Furthermore, if you you're not trapped on Unix, what system could you easily get up and move your life and your work to?
> They probably could have ported their entire stack to open source alternatives in the time it's taken just to get our SQL Server licenses straightened out...
I bet they'd still be trying to figure out which broken front-end to use to interact with PGSQL. Then we'd see a headline like "After a 10-year Linux migration, Munich considers switching back to Windows and Office".
Furthermore, if you you're not trapped on Unix, what system could you easily get up and move your life and your work to?
> They probably could have ported their entire stack to open source alternatives in the time it's taken just to get our SQL Server licenses straightened out...
I bet they'd still be trying to figure out which broken front-end to use to interact with PGSQL. Then we'd see a headline like "After a 10-year Linux migration, Munich considers switching back to Windows and Office".
What? That's horrible, but seems to be the way Microsoft is moving under Nadella. Sign in to everything. Everything is a service.
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Yes, I noticed that when I was trying the beta. Quite unfortunate, but it seems that's how most things work nowadays.
I hope this is the event that the TypeScript team is waiting for to release 1.5 out of the current beta.
I'm kinda bummed that they are waiting for what seems like an arbitrary date to non-VS devs (I do my dev work on a Linux personal machine and an OSX work machine). But hey, I can wait a couple extra days, I suppose.
I'm eagerly waiting 1.6 with JSX support.
Why wait? Atom-Typescript has nightly typescript inside if you want to try it in IDE, and also you can use it from command line by installing nightly Typescript from here: https://github.com/TypeStrong/ntypescript
Of course I'm using TypeScript 1.5 right now. Problem comes when I have to explain the `beta` badge in front of people that pay me for what I do :)
Tangential: New to c++ dev on Linux after years with devstudio/windows. What do you guys recommend for a dev env for a guy like me (say on a mac). Thanks!
Edit: I see Jetbrains has CLion. Any good?
Edit: I see Jetbrains has CLion. Any good?
Check out QtCreator. It's for writing Qt based C++ programs but I'm fairly certain you can use it equally well for plain old C++ code.
I agree, QtCreator is great and yes even for plain old c++ code. You don't have to use Qt framework.
Yes it works perfectly well for non-Qt programs. It's very good.
My favorite part of QtCreator is that I don't have to type that awkward arrow ->, it will convert my dots . for me when I'm working with pointers.
Are you on Linux or on a Mac ?
If you are on a Mac, you should definitely give a try to XCode it is, after all, the official Apple IDE. Not even close to Visual Studio, but not as bad (for C++ at least) as many people advertise.
For Linux, Kdevelop seems nice, other Linux C++ IDEs: Eclipse, NetBeans, CLion.
You should also probably try Vim and Emacs at least once, start with their included tutorials.
If you are on a Mac, you should definitely give a try to XCode it is, after all, the official Apple IDE. Not even close to Visual Studio, but not as bad (for C++ at least) as many people advertise.
For Linux, Kdevelop seems nice, other Linux C++ IDEs: Eclipse, NetBeans, CLion.
You should also probably try Vim and Emacs at least once, start with their included tutorials.
I always wanted to know that from people with experience in Windows dev (and some on Apple platforms). What are the features that XCode doesn't have for C++ development compared to VS? Genuinely interested. Not familiar with VS
CLion is definitely worth checking out. The JetBrains guys know what they are doing.
The only things which they didn't solve is the hard GC pauses when developing really big projects or Scala.
Mostly this happens on IntelliJ quite often if you are doing some work pauses while keeping IntelliJ open.
This happens quite often on bad machines and nearly never on machines with a really good memory module / awesome ssd's.
Still isn't easy to fix since they are working really hard to ensure performance on a lot of machines. Also that they support everything down to Java6 makes their codebase on some edges quite wierd.
Also I don't get it why they use so many languages at once (Java, Kotlin, Groovy) and I think some parts are in C++ (fileWatcher, launcher, restarter, updater, fsnotifier)?
(see: https://github.com/JetBrains/intellij-community)
This happens quite often on bad machines and nearly never on machines with a really good memory module / awesome ssd's.
Still isn't easy to fix since they are working really hard to ensure performance on a lot of machines. Also that they support everything down to Java6 makes their codebase on some edges quite wierd.
Also I don't get it why they use so many languages at once (Java, Kotlin, Groovy) and I think some parts are in C++ (fileWatcher, launcher, restarter, updater, fsnotifier)?
(see: https://github.com/JetBrains/intellij-community)
>Also I don't get it why they use so many languages at once (Java, Kotlin, Groovy) and I think some parts are in C++
They seem to be mainly a Java shop. They probably use C++ for some performance intensive tasks where it makes a difference.
Since they are creating Kotlin, they are starting to use it for their codebase as well.
Their different IDEs seem to be built on the same java core, but with extensions in the target language : Python for PyCharm, c# for ReSharper, ....
Their different IDEs seem to be built on the same java core, but with extensions in the target language : Python for PyCharm, c# for ReSharper, ....
> why they use so many languages at once (Java, Kotlin, Groovy)
Kotlin is a JetBrains project. They're in the process of introducing Kotlin as a primary language for developing JetBrains applications, and Kotlin is still pre-1.0 release. As for Groovy, I think they want to replace it all with Kotlin code.
Kotlin is a JetBrains project. They're in the process of introducing Kotlin as a primary language for developing JetBrains applications, and Kotlin is still pre-1.0 release. As for Groovy, I think they want to replace it all with Kotlin code.
I've looked at Kotlin and I liked the design, too. I was just wondering why so many at once. But it would be great if they will replace Groovy at all.
Still I think it's too early to support Kotlin at Enterprise Level. Also I'm in the transition to FP (Functional Programming) and I think Kotlin still misses some functionality around that.
Edit: maybe I will use Kotlin to replace our JavaScript Stack (currently in Angular, but totally against any practice)
Still I think it's too early to support Kotlin at Enterprise Level. Also I'm in the transition to FP (Functional Programming) and I think Kotlin still misses some functionality around that.
Edit: maybe I will use Kotlin to replace our JavaScript Stack (currently in Angular, but totally against any practice)
Years of visual studio w/C# on Windows, then moved to Linux here. I suggest you dive straight into the deep end, learn vim, and go in raw.
Are there books and/or resources you could recommend? tx
Have you ever worked in vim? If you haven't, the way I learned the basics was by watching these videos: http://derekwyatt.org/vim/tutorials/
To get used to the hjkl keys, I would recommend you to download tetris and change the movement keys from the default arrows to hjkl and play for a week a little bit every day. I got used to very very fast. Some people recommend http://vim-adventures.com/ but I have never used it.
vim has a few very interesting plugins that I recommend installing, especially if you are interested in working with vim every day instead of using it only through ssh. If you end up going with vim and like it, answer me and I will go over the plugins I like the most.
To get used to the hjkl keys, I would recommend you to download tetris and change the movement keys from the default arrows to hjkl and play for a week a little bit every day. I got used to very very fast. Some people recommend http://vim-adventures.com/ but I have never used it.
vim has a few very interesting plugins that I recommend installing, especially if you are interested in working with vim every day instead of using it only through ssh. If you end up going with vim and like it, answer me and I will go over the plugins I like the most.
Will definitely take a look at vim so would appreciate the guidance.
The first thing I would recommend you is to build the vimrc yourself. Forget about the huge github vimrcs available out there. Check them out and see if there are things you like, but build your own vimrc.
The second thing is if you are planning on using plugins (which I recommend), use a plugin manager like https://github.com/junegunn/vim-plug. They make it extremely easy to install plugins, and updating them will be a breeze.
vim is not for everyone. Some people enjoy using some vim emulation for their favorite editor. Just because using vim is very common in the Linux world doesn't mean you should. I still recommend that people get used to the keys.
I would personally not install any plugins right away. I would get used to vim for at least 2 weeks and see from there what you want to do. That said, the plugins I've found the most interesting and helpful have been the following:
NERDTree (shows your project's structure. Similar to what you would find in sublime or any modern IDE)
NERDcommenter (allows you to comment/uncomment lines or groups of lines automatically)
CtrlP (fuzzy search of files in your current folder or subfolders, or inside the current repository)
ultisnips (snippets)
vim-surround (allows you to insert parentheses, brackets, quotes, etc. around the selected area)
auto-pairs (or something equivalent. Basically, creating the closing bracket, quote, etc. every time you open bracket, quote, etc.)
vim-easymotion (this is a very interesting plugin. I would recommend that you check it out to get an idea of what it does. It's useful when trying to navigate around the screen)
syntastic (syntax checker for multiple languages)
tagbar (if you enjoy having a small summary of all the functions and variables in the current file, this is for you)
supertab (vim uses c-p and c-n to complete words in insert mode. supertab allows you to complete with tab instead of c-p and c-n. If you are used to using tab in other editors, this will help you)
vim-fugitive (quite nice if you are use git. Helps you comparing newer and older revisions, for example. You can open a modified file with vim, write :Gdiff and get the uncommited changes)
youcompleteme (the best code completion tool available. Has very good context completion)
vim-colorschemes (a collection of a million different colorschemes to try)
vim-hybrid (my favorite dark colorscheme by far)
The second thing is if you are planning on using plugins (which I recommend), use a plugin manager like https://github.com/junegunn/vim-plug. They make it extremely easy to install plugins, and updating them will be a breeze.
vim is not for everyone. Some people enjoy using some vim emulation for their favorite editor. Just because using vim is very common in the Linux world doesn't mean you should. I still recommend that people get used to the keys.
I would personally not install any plugins right away. I would get used to vim for at least 2 weeks and see from there what you want to do. That said, the plugins I've found the most interesting and helpful have been the following:
NERDTree (shows your project's structure. Similar to what you would find in sublime or any modern IDE)
NERDcommenter (allows you to comment/uncomment lines or groups of lines automatically)
CtrlP (fuzzy search of files in your current folder or subfolders, or inside the current repository)
ultisnips (snippets)
vim-surround (allows you to insert parentheses, brackets, quotes, etc. around the selected area)
auto-pairs (or something equivalent. Basically, creating the closing bracket, quote, etc. every time you open bracket, quote, etc.)
vim-easymotion (this is a very interesting plugin. I would recommend that you check it out to get an idea of what it does. It's useful when trying to navigate around the screen)
syntastic (syntax checker for multiple languages)
tagbar (if you enjoy having a small summary of all the functions and variables in the current file, this is for you)
supertab (vim uses c-p and c-n to complete words in insert mode. supertab allows you to complete with tab instead of c-p and c-n. If you are used to using tab in other editors, this will help you)
vim-fugitive (quite nice if you are use git. Helps you comparing newer and older revisions, for example. You can open a modified file with vim, write :Gdiff and get the uncommited changes)
youcompleteme (the best code completion tool available. Has very good context completion)
vim-colorschemes (a collection of a million different colorschemes to try)
vim-hybrid (my favorite dark colorscheme by far)
Regarding vim, I enjoyed this quite a bit: http://www.vimgenius.com/
..but mostly, I learned from videos. There are plenty of them and some are really good.
..but mostly, I learned from videos. There are plenty of them and some are really good.
Vim itself had a decent built-in tutorial, just launch vim and I think its the default prompt. People have gamified vim hot keys too, check out shortcut foo and Google 'vim' golf.
Visual Studio Code looks promising, and should feel familiar to you.
VS Code is C#, JavaScript, and Typescript only.
It does have syntax highlighting for C++ and a list of other languages as well. But for the fuller experience you're right.
Source: https://code.visualstudio.com/Docs/languages
Source: https://code.visualstudio.com/Docs/languages
But it's like a notepad at the moment though (no refactoring) - so any language goes?
It has code navigation for C#, find references, and many other cool things probably mostly provided by OmniSharp.
Visual Basic too
Not a massive fan of "...all versions of Visual Studio 2013 and 2015 will require you to sign in using a Microsoft account..." though. [source: from an email]