VB.NET beta1 for 13 bucks?

[Olly]

if you go into the microsoft developer store you can order it for 13 bucks! I always thought you'd have to have an msdn universal subscription for that ?! Please excuse me if my post was dumb and not uptodate , then im gonna delete this posthttp://developerstore.com/devstore/toolboxSelect.asp

[Olly]

come on guys! plz tell me what's going on here!

[chrisjk]

what is your problem exactly?

[Olly]

no problem, just wondered why its so cheap and public

[Matthew Gates]

I think it's like a Learner's Edition, so you won't be able to make exe files with it, I could be wrong, but looking at all that other stuff that have Evaluations and all that...I'd assume that .NET is not the full version that can make files.

[Tomexx]

Like Mathew said, it's an evaluation version. It's not optimised, slow and chances are it will crash your computer, so if you get it, you should install it on a dedicated computer.

As far as the $13 fee being low, let's not forget that Microsoft wants to get as many beta testers as possible to debug the program so when they release it is as much bug-free as possible. This in turn will people buying the product and keep MS on top as king of software.

Hey, I bet they're still making money giving it away for $13.

[Tygur]

This is probably among the biggest reasons why it's so cheap: (It's cut and pasted straight out of the Visual Studio .NET Beta 1 FAQ)

Can I distribute code that I build with Visual Studio.NET?
No. The End-User License Agreement (EULA) specifically states you cannot create shipping applications with the beta.