Version madness

Microsoft has gone seriously psycho with versions and editions in their latest and forthcoming products.

Windows Vista for instance has seven base editions and then numerous releases of each (32bit, 64bit, European editions etc.) Imagine your mum trying to decide which version of Windows Vista she needs. "No mum, you have a 64bit machine bought in Europe, you need Windows Vista Premium Home 64bit Media Player Free edition." And just wait until the service packs start rolling out...

Visual Studio 2005 is another case, compounded by the MSDN Subscription changes. We have a MSDN Subscription here at work. Which one I don't really know because every time someone tells me I promptly forget as it is about 7 words long. Suffice to say it is a good one and we get pretty much every Visual Studio 2005 edition. Being a developer I chose to install Visual Studio 2005 Team Edition for Software Developers. What a mouthful.

I naturally assumed this edition would have a good suite of test tools. Wrong. I wanted to test the Web Test system but the option wasn't there. Puzzled I checked my install to make sure I had installed Visual Web Developer. It was installed. I then checked Brian's machine and his too had no Web Test item. Visual Studio 2005 Team Edition for Software Developers only has Unit Tests with the capability to order your tests and of course code coverage.

Turns out I need Visual Studio 2005 Team Edition for Software Testers to get at all the testing tools. Two installs just to get some useful testing projects? What does Software Tester edition not include that Software Developer does?

Looking around I see a lot of confused developers asking just what is in each edition of Visual Studio 2005. Some even mention that feature charts on different parts of Microsoft.com show different details. Sounds to me like even Microsoft employees are confused about the editions.

This edition madness has got to stop. I just want to install the Uber edition and get my job done.