Visual Studio Pro Upgrade from Express?!

While having to order up a second license of Visual Studio Pro 2008, I came across the following page:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/vs20.../cc263904.aspx

The part that interested me was at the bottom under Upgrade Pricing Eligibility. You can install the upgrade version of Visual Studio on a computer with Visual Studio Express on it?!


Ok, Visual Studio Express versions are free to download and use... so if this is true, why would anyone pay the extra $250 for the full version?

Is there a catch? Am I reading this correctly? Can anyone verify this?

Thanks.

It sounds absurd, but based on that page it seems to be true... and not just for Microsoft's free products either, but any development tool:

Quote:

---

To qualify for upgrade pricing, you must be a licensed user of one of the following products:

* An earlier version of Microsoft Visual Studio
* Any other developer tool (including free developer tools, such as Visual Studio Express Editions or Eclipse)

---

:eek:

Yea! I read it and was thinking "That's absurd! That make zero sense from a marketing standpoint!" If it wasn't on MSDN, I wouldn't have believed it.

Well heck, I'll start downloading Eclipse now and order my company up a copy of VS2k8 Pro Upgrade. :D

it's called market capturing...from the VBExpress -> Pro step.... it's worth the money... you're getting Visual Studio Pro... which adds on other stuff besides jsut VB. I'm surprised at the Eclipse note, but again, market capturing. It gets people who would otherwise pass over VS to consider it. I'm not saying it make a whole lot of sense...(any one using Eclipse probably isn't interested in .NET development, and if they are, odds are they will be using Mono anyhow.)

-tg

Hello

The link in this initial post now is for VS 2012, and mentions no upgrade path.
I'm upgrading from VB Pro 6.0, I have VS 2005 Pro on the shelf but never installed/opened it.

I'm considering upgrading to VS Pro 2008 or VS Pro 2010.

If I buy a VS Pro 2008 or 2010 upgrade, will I be able to continue to use my VB6 while I update my many apps?
Does VSPro allow installation on a second/portable PC?

I remember huge hassles when upgrading Access years back and trying to maintain apps from older versions.

If your VS 2005 has a full licence (rather than an upgrade licence) then you can upgrade from that to a later version, and keep using VB 6.

If your VS 2005 was an upgrade licence (from VB 6), then I'm pretty sure you can only use one of them.

I was thinking about selling my Unopened VSP 2005, and upgrading from VBP6 though.