Microsoft Developer Network

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The Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) is the portion of Microsoft responsible for managing the firm's relationship with developers.

1 Developers covered by MSDN
2 Software Subscriptions
3 Information service
4 MSDN Magazine
5 Later version
6 See also
7 External links
8 References

[edit] Developers covered by MSDN

This includes many different kinds of developers: hardware developers interested in the operating system (OS), developers standing on the various OS platforms, developers leveraging the API and scripting languages of Microsoft's many applications. The relationship management is situated in assorted media: web sites, newsletters, developer conferences, trade media, blogs and DVD distribution. The life cycle of the relationships ranges from legacy support through evangelizing potential offerings.

[edit] Software Subscriptions

MSDN has historically offered a subscription package whereby developers have access and licenses to use nearly all Microsoft software that has ever been released to the public. Subscriptions are sold on an annual basis, and cost up to $10,939 USD per year per subscription, as it is offered in several tiers. Holders of such subscriptions (except the lowest library-only levels) receive new Microsoft software on CD's or DVD's every few weeks or months. The software generally comes on specially marked MSDN discs, but contain the identical retail or volume-license software as it is released to the public.

Although in most cases the software itself functions exactly like the full product, the MSDN end-user license agreement^[1] prohibits use of the software in a business production environment. This is a legal restriction, not a technical one. As an example, MSDN regularly includes the latest Windows operating systems (such as Windows XP and Windows Vista), server software such as SQL Server 2005, development tools such as Visual Studio, and applications like Microsoft Office and MapPoint. For software that requires a product key, a Microsoft website generates these on demand. Such a package provides a single computer enthusiast with access to nearly everything Microsoft offers for one low attractive price. However, a business caught with an office full of PC's and servers running the software included in an MSDN subscription without the appropriate non-MSDN licenses for those machines would be treated no differently in a compliance audit than if the software were pirated off the Internet.

Microsoft's MSDN license agreement^[1] makes a specific exception for Microsoft Office, allowing the subscription holder to personally use it for business purposes without needing a separate license. As would be expected, any software created with the development tools (like Visual Studio), along with the runtime components needed to use it, isn't restricted in any way by Microsoft either - such software can and regularly is used for business production purposes. The license agreement refers to several other items in the subscription and grants additional similar exceptions as appropriate.

An MSDN subscriber is entitled to activate as many copies as needed for his/her own development purposes. Therefore, if a computer enthusiast somehow has 20 computers at home which he uses himself for software development (and aren't acting as part of a business, for example, a server farm), one subscription allows all 20 of those computers to be running their own separate copy of Windows, Office, and any other Microsoft product. After a few installations, the activation keys will stop allowing automatic product activation over the Internet, but after a telephone call to the Product Activation hotline to confirm that the installations are indeed legitimate and consistent with the license agreement, the activations are granted over the phone.

Even though an MSDN subscription is on an annual basis, the license to use the software, according to the agreement^[1], does not terminate. The individual just isn't entitled to any upgrades after the software is expired. An MSDN subscription also allows access to obsolete software from Microsoft's past. Although they aren't included in the regular CD/DVD shipments, subscribers can download oldies such as MS-DOS 5.0 and Windows 3.1 from MSDN Subscriber Downloads. Such software usually comes in the form of ISO or floppy disk image files that allow the subscriber to reproduce the original installation media after the download.

[edit] Information service

The division runs an information service provided by Microsoft for software developers. Its main focus is on Microsoft's .NET platform, however it also features articles on areas such as programming practices and design patterns. Many resources are available for free online, while others are available by mail via a subscription.

Depending on subscription level, subscribers may receive early editions of Microsoft operating systems or other Microsoft products (Microsoft Office applications, Visual Studio, etc.).

Microsoft also hosts a number of developer-centric conferences at it's Redmond campus, to which MSDN subscribers are privileged to. Depending on the size of the company and it's products, these conferences can be one-on-one and have a single focus.

Universities and high schools can enroll in the MSDN Academic Alliance program, which provides access to some Microsft developer software for their computer science and engineering students (and possibly other students or faculty as well). A MSDNAA account is not an MSDN account and cannot be used to access the subscriber's section of the MSDN website or its downloads.

[edit] MSDN Magazine

Microsoft provides the editorial content for MSDN Magazine, a monthly publication. The magazine began life as Microsoft Systems Journal (MSJ).

[edit] Later version

MSDN2 was opened in November 2004 as a source for Visual Studio 2005 API information, with noteworthy differences being updated web site code, conforming better to web standards and thus giving a long awaited improved support for alternative web browsers to Internet Explorer in the API browser.