I spent Monday at StartupCamp 2 in San Francisco. As this event was hosted by Sun, I didn’t expect to come across a lot of people using .NET (although, I did come across more than expected…some very cool things too). I always inquire as to the thought process an entrepreneur goes through when choosing their technology platform. The top 3 answers are typically:
- It’s what I know
- It makes the most sense given my target customers and partners (this usually reflects mature thinking across the entire business)
- Cost
For some reason, most of the people I chatted with at this event responded with #3 (the cost). Thus, I spent a lot of time explaining to people that Microsoft did have excellent programs and FREE software for ISVs and entrepreneurs.
About half the people stopping by the booth were pre-startup entrepreneurs (playing with a concept but still had a day job). For these folks, I provided information on the Microsoft Express edition software. The Express Edition software is available for FREE -- go to the link and download the software. For your convenience, I have included some of the links to free production and beta software (if you are really on the cutting edge, you may want to check out the beta stuff) as well as some of the 180 day trial versions:
If you have already formed a company, you should check out the Microsoft Empower Program for ISVs. There is a nominal cost to this program (not the software) of USD$375. This program basically gives you everything you need to develop a product using Microsoft technologies including ISV Advisory hours (premier support tailored to the ISV community) and more. Full information and benefits of the program (including the web –based process to sign-up) can be found at the above link (or you can find a link on the “Partner With Us” tab).
If you are looking to deliver your solution as a service, I encourage you to look and enroll in the SAAS OnRamp program.
And yes there is open source stuff too. CodePlex is Microsoft's open source project hosting web site.
Besides all the free software, Microsoft also has a very robust development community that you can plug into. The community urls would be too numerous to list here, but each product area has at least one community site/area. Here are some of the more common developer sites:
And if those sites don’t lead you to the answers, check out the Microsoft employee blogs. Most Microsoft developer blogs are hosted (or searchable) on either Technet or MSDN site. I strongly suggest going to http://blogs.msdn.com and doing a quick search.
I hope this is helpful and demonstrates that there is free software available from Microsoft. As for the answer “It’s what I know”, we are working with maternity wards to include a copy of Visual Studio in the free diaper bag for newborns! Until then, you will find Microsoft participating in events like the Maker's Faire. For more information on that, visit the Coding4Fun blog.
