Visual Studio 2005 or 2008

Toad

18y4.1k

So, I've been using Visual Studio 2003 for about 4 years now and really, I don't have any problems with it, but lately I've been able to use VS 2005 some and I like a lot of the features it offers over 2003 as well as some of the .NET 2.0 additions. So, now that I'm finally going to upgrade, should I really buy the "old" version now that 2008 is out? I have several concerns going to 2008:

I have not used it so I am not sure how much has changed from 2005
I am currently use VS 2003 on both XP Pro and XP Pro x64 Edition and do not plan on moving to Vista, but everything I read about VS 2008 is about Vista.
Can you create .NET 1.1 or 2.0 applications on VS 2008? (On a related note, can you create .NET 1.1 applications on VS 2005?)
I am currently using Perforce for my Source Control and while I have read it will work with 2008, I haven't found any actual users that have tried it.
I develop very little for the web and most of my software are client/server applications and it seems, from what I've read, that 2008's focus is web related.

Sorry if I seem to be a bit picky and naive, but I am a self-employed programmer and I have a very limited budget for this kind of thing so I would like to make sure I make the right choice.

If you can help me answer some of my concerns, that would be great. I have downloaded the trial for 2008, but I am not sure it will be able to give me enough of an idea if it is the right thing, after all, most of my projects are 6 months to several years so 90 days may not be enough to let it show its true colors.

3 Replies

Know the answer? Post it — somebody with the same question will find it here.

Alan18y ago
I don't know where you'll be able to buy VS 2005 now, apart from Amazon, but just as a matter of interest you can still download the free 2005 Express versions from here:
http://www.microsoft.com/express/2005/
Toad18y ago
Thanks, that is just the kind of reply I was looking for. I am a little disappointed you can't use .NET 1.1, but I guess I'll just have to settle for 2.0!

Now, one last question: Does anyone know where I can buy it? I've spent the morning looking and thus far the only places I've found it are eBay and Amazon Marketplace users and I would really prefer to buy it from a reputable dealer but it appears that MS has made them all go to 2008 already.
Mahesh Chand18y ago
You cannot build .NET 1.1 apps using VS 2005 as it uses .NET 2.0 and same applies to VS 2008.
As per commercial application development goes, it will take a while till companies jump on .NET 3.0 and 3.5. Right now companies are in phase of migrating from .NET 1.0/1.1 to 2.0 and it will be around for a while. I would say 3-5 years.
If you do not use Visual Studio advanced features, you can always go for Express versions and they are absolutely free.
At this point, I would not buy VS 2008.