MAPS, Technet or MSDN?

**Intel** · 4 October 2015, 03:03

Originally posted by b0redom View Post

Hi All,
Hoping someone can shed some light on the differences. I've been a MAPS subscriber previously, but that only gives access to the latest and greatest versions and a number of end customers have all sorts of odd combinations of older tech (some going back to XP) which I may need to mock up in a VM.

Does anyone have a definitive list of what each of the above costs and includes? I've not found a clear page listing what is available.

Cheers....

b0redom

Technet is dead, killed by a Microsoft that no longer values the technical community and prefers instead to pander to the marketing department with a style over substance approach (as evidenced by the non-stop release of unfinished software we've been plagued with recently).

MSDN is what you need to be able to get the older versions of software, but be prepared to spend £6K on a subscription that does what you need it to do (although if you don't need some of the dev stuff you may be able to get away with the platforms level.)

There's a link on this page called "Download the list of products available by subscription level". This gives you all the detail you'll need.

https://www.visualstudio.com/en-us/p...ptions-vs.aspx

HTH.

**ShandyDrinker** · 4 October 2015, 07:55

Originally posted by Intel View Post

Technet is dead, killed by a Microsoft that no longer values the technical community and prefers instead to pander to the marketing department with a style over substance approach (as evidenced by the non-stop release of unfinished software we've been plagued with recently).

MSDN is what you need to be able to get the older versions of software, but be prepared to spend £6K on a subscription that does what you need it to do (although if you don't need some of the dev stuff you may be able to get away with the platforms level.)

There's a link on this page called "Download the list of products available by subscription level". This gives you all the detail you'll need.

https://www.visualstudio.com/en-us/p...ptions-vs.aspx

HTH.

I don't have the figures in front of me as I took out an MSDN Professional Subscription a few years ago now... but the last time I renewed it cost me in the region of £800 for 2 years although it depends on what your requirements are. One thing I do find a bit of a rip off with the MSDN subscription is that although the operating systems and development tools are included, it appears that Office no longer is. As a consequence I make do with an old copy of Office (2007) which I'm not in a hurry to upgrade.

I also had MAPS when I started the business in 2008 and found that to be good value, if you didn't need the developer tools but just wanted Operating Systems and Office instead.

**Intel** · 4 October 2015, 09:16

Originally posted by ShandyDrinker View Post

I don't have the figures in front of me as I took out an MSDN Professional Subscription a few years ago now... but the last time I renewed it cost me in the region of £800 for 2 years although it depends on what your requirements are. One thing I do find a bit of a rip off with the MSDN subscription is that although the operating systems and development tools are included, it appears that Office no longer is. As a consequence I make do with an old copy of Office (2007) which I'm not in a hurry to upgrade.

I also had MAPS when I started the business in 2008 and found that to be good value, if you didn't need the developer tools but just wanted Operating Systems and Office instead.

The lack of office and other things like VS ultimate 2012 / 2013 is MSFTs attempt to get you to buy the enterprise version of MSDN.

You get a discount upon renewal but the current retail price for a new subscription is as follows:

VS Enterprise With MSDN - £6082
VS Professional With MSDN - £1216
VS Professional With MSDN (Test Edition) - £2199

The last price I paid for technet that had everything, including all the office version, platforms etc was about £200. To get the same software with MSDN is a price increase of * 30.

Crazy abandonment of the technical community by MSFT. One of the prime reasons I've started to cross skill to Google techs.

**b0redom** · 4 October 2015, 10:31

Yeah, I can't really justify that. At the moment I only have a few Windows VMs knocking around. I might just buy a bunch of retail licenses for the stuff I actually need, or suck it up and pay for MAPS. I supposed that gives me the latest and greatest, and I can see industry going direct from Windows 7->10.

**Yonmons** · 20 October 2015, 06:12

Technet that archive much relied upon my people working in the "trade" to resolve issues is long dead. About the only thing I subscribe to (on and off) and presently "off" is MS Action Pack. Good selection of "currrent" MS Software for you to play with. These days they want you to take a little Microsoft exam to show you are worthy, last time I did it, I guessed the answers and passed. (without reading the mind numbing dross) its about 400 and odd quid (I tried to find out but its buried on the MS site, nearest I can get is 475$ (US) without spending to much time on it. Worth a go, but can get expensive year on year. 100% tax deductable though if you are running Ltd Company.

MAPS, Technet or MSDN?