Microsoft offers second beta for Visual Studio 2010

Microsoft will offer the second beta of its upcoming Visual Studio 2010 software development platform and the accompanying .Net Framework 4 programming platform. The Visual Studio platform is being reduced from nine different packaging options to just three primary options.

“The feedback that we’ve heard from our customers was [nine options] was too complicated,” said Mendlen. “There were too many packages to choose from.” The three primary packages, featuring MSDN subscriptions, include:

Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate with MSDN, featuring the full suite of tools including ALM products. Testing and architecture tools also are featured. It carries a price tag of $11,924 for a new customer and $3,841 for a current customer renewing with Microsoft.

Visual Studio 2010 Premium with MSDN, featuring the Visual Studio toolset but lacking some architecture capabilities of the Ultimate edition. Some of Microsoft’s ALM suite is included. Premium costs $5,469 for new users and $2,299 for customers seeking renewals.

Visual Studio 2010 Professional with MSDN, for basic development tasks. It includes the core version of Visual Studio. It costs $1,199 for a new user and $799 for a renewal.”