Software Librarian

One of the nice benefits of an MSDN subscription is having a boatload of software for development, test, and experimentation. The drawback is the boatload of discs that accumulate during the year.

Consonica Software has a product they call the “Software Librarian for MSDN”. After a quick install, you tell the software what type of subscription you have, and what products you use, and then it tells you which discs to feed into the computer. Sometime later, everything you use is now copied to a hard drive. The monthly updates are a breeze, and no more fumbling around for discs. Watch the video demo.

Disclaimer: Consonica sent me a copy of their software to use. I can honestly say I've found it works very well and saves time. In a partner setting, you typically have 5 MSDN licenses for every 1 set of physical media. In theory, this works well, but in practice, it works like this:

0:00 Decide to install SQL Server 2005
0:01 Start to rummage through 50 DVDs in the MSDN storage case
0:15 Check the DVD drive on dev machine #1
0:16 Check the DVD drive on dev laptop
0:17 Check the DVD drive on dev machine #2
0:18 Start an email rant about DVDs missing from the case
0:19 Remember you sent the same email last month
0:20 Copy last month’s rant into current email, press Send
0:23 Start SQL 2005 download from MSDN subscribers page
1:23 Download completes
1:23 Someone finds the SQL 2005 DVD in the break room

Check out Software Librarian, it does save some time.