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Richard Dudley -> RE: Free Visual Studio & ASP.NET online courses from Microsoft (11/11/2005 9:08:19)
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VSTS is probably overkill for most developers--it's geared toward large development teams with specific roles, and the server components (used for version control and such) really need a separate machine. I'm the sole developer for a large, privately held company, and I probably won't use VSTS--the overhead is more than I need for the few features I can also get elsewhere.
There are some great tools in the Express lines, which are based on Visual Studio 2005, and are free to use (for at least a year, anyway). They're not the full Visual Studio 2005, but still pretty good, especially for the cash-strapped or novice dev. There's actually some preference in the dev community for Visual Web Developer Express over Visual Studio itself. You can find the Express editions at http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/default.aspx. There are also some excellent starter kits available at http://asp.net
If you need more of a development platform, yuo can get Visual Studio 2005 Standard and SQL Server 2005 Standard for free by attending one of the launch events. Most of the main launch events are full, but you'll get the software by going to any of the "Best of" events as well. The main Launch Event page is at http://www.microsoft.com/events/2005launchevents/default.mspx, look for the "Special Edition" link to find the "Best Of" events that may be close to your area. I'll be at the Pgh "Best Of" and the DC main launch event in the next few months.
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