I need to get Visual Studio 2005 for development in VB.NET, but I
don't know what version I need. I've searched the web, and I can't
find any information about the different versions. Can anyone point me
to a URL where that information is available?

I just finished a comical phone call with a Microsoft sales
technician. She told me, first of all, that Microsoft can't give out
any information about Visual Studio 2005 because they don't sell it
any more. I said, okay, tell me about Visual Studio 2008. The sales
technician spent several minutes looking at one web page after another
until finally, very frustrated, she conceded that she could not give
me a definitive list of the different versions of Visual Studio 2008;
and she could not tell me which versions contain which features. I
suspect I was talking to a trainee, but in any case, it's clear that
Microsoft does a terrible job of distributing information about its
product line.

Could this http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/aa700921.aspx be what you
are looking for?

-Teemu

Dude, that is EXACTLY what I was looking for! Thanks. The next time I
talk to a Microsoft sales rep, I'll be sure to tell them about that
page.

Show quote Hide quote Also remind the sales rep that VS 2008 would be a better choice.  It lets
you target .Net 2.0 as well as 3.0 and 3.5.  Here is the page to get the
product comparisons for that version:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=727BCFB0-B575-47AB-9FD8-4EE067BB3A37&displaylang=en#filelist

The express version is free, including for commercial use. MS removed the
links to download the 2005 version, but you can get it as part of MSDN
Subscription.

It's better to get MSDN Subscription rather than VS, because they are
similar in price; however, MSDN Subscription includes VS2002 to 2008, and
perhaps 2010, and many other products. The subscription is for one year, but
you are allowed to use the products and product keys that you downloaded
forever, they just don't send you any new updates. You can still use retail
versions service packs though.

Below, click on the link "download the complete list of products...", and
select a sheet to view the list of products. Click on the left or right
arrow to view more sheets. At a minimum, check out "VS Pro w MSDN Pro
(Retail)" sheet.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/subscriptionschart.aspx

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