
A while back I wrote a post (surprising I know, I never do that) on The Unofficial Microsoft Weblog about how many flavors Windows Vista had coming out...whenever. I believe I have found another winner. Visual Studio 2005 has
almost as many flavors as Vista, which isn't too alarming because they both come from Microsoft. Not that this is particularly a bad thing, it is just funny to think about. I often suffer from consumer confusion, for example Visual Studio 2005, Express edition, Everywhere edition, Online Hosted edition, Professional edition, or even the Virtual Images edition. What's a geek to do anyway? How am I supposed to remember which tools are in which set in which product? What if I need more than one of the product, like the "consumer-and-dumbed-down" version as well as the "I'm-an-educator-so-I-have-special-software-needs-and-want-low-prices" version, not to mention the "I-want-to-easily-build-mobile-apps" version? Microsoft continues this trend of compartmentalized software products, while most people in the world are leaning toward multiplicity and integration. Is Microsoft behind the times in segregating all these products and taking away the clear definition of what they can do? Shouldn't software adapt itself to the multi-dimensional and integrated way we all work now?