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Microsoft Expands MSDN Subscription Options

Microsoft Corp. this week added two levels to its Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) subscription service.

"We're providing a level of MSDN for each level of Visual Studio .NET," says Sam Henry, technical product manager for MSDN.

Microsoft says it will finish Visual Studio .NET by the end of the year and make it available to developers early in 2002.

Visual Studio .NET will ship in Professional, Enterprise Developer and Enterprise Architect versions.

The MSDN subscription program previously allowed an MSDN Universal subscription, with a high price and versions of all of Microsoft's software, and then far lower level subscriptions -- MSDN Library and MSDN Operating Systems. Neither MSDN Library nor MSDN Operating Systems includes the Visual Studio toolkit.

The two new levels are MSDN Professional and MSDN Enterprise.

"The professional level has been the level that has been the most vocal about what they want," Henry says.

MSDN Enterprise subscribers will receive Visual Studio .NET Enterprise Developer and many of the software titles MSDN Universal subscribers receive. MSDN Professional subscribers will get Visual Studio .NET Professional and less software than MSDN Enterprise subscribers.

Pricing for the subscriptions is:

  • MSDN Library $199 new, $99 renewal
  • MSDN Operating Systems $699 new, $499 renewal
  • MSDN Professional $1,199 new, $899 renewal
  • MSDN Enterprise $2,199 new, $1,599 renewal
  • MSDN Universal $2,799 new, $2,299 renewal

    • About the Author

    Scott Bekker is editor in chief of Redmond Channel Partner magazine.

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