Team $ystem

Don’t you just love when those brash, young h4xxorz in the newsgroups type Microsoft with a $ sign? Such a rebellious nature….

It’s interesting to watch the reaction to the obfuscated pricing announcement for VS 2005 Team System (a readable version, with opinion, is presented by Mike Gunderloy).

Is Team System expensive?

Expensive is a relative term, isn’t it?

Is CaliberRM expensive? Is Rational Rose Enterprise expensive? Is ClearCase or Perforce expensive? Have you ever priced just their yearly support contracts for an enterprise?

I don’t think the price is surprising given the above list, but I was hoping Team Foundation Server would be where Microsoft tried to make  money back. The server seems reasonably priced, but Visual Studio and MSDN subscriptions are handing out sticker shock – particularly to independent consultants who pay for subs out of their own pocket.

MSDN subscribers are accustomed to having the fully loaded IDE, but it doesn't look like this will come with an easily justifiable price anymore.