Larry’s Log

You know, if I could get my hands on a legitimate copy of Microsoft’s Visual Studio for around $100 I would probably try my hand at some of their .NET stuff. Yeah, I have access to the software at the office but we don’t have the licenses to place it on everyone’s machine and the projects I’m working on don’t require it. The thing is that I might find myself working on a project that required it if my skills were there.

Well, it looks like a cheap version may be in the future:

“Basically they’re going to price certain versions of Visual Studio, so even hobbyist types can get on the action,” said one person familiar with Microsoft’s plans. “I think the idea is that if you get the tech in front of “low-end” developers, they can grow and get exposure to it to someday play in the big leagues.”

I’m not sure why MS hasn’t understood this all along. Involve the hobbyist with your product and you are going to build a bigger following.