VS 2003 Database : OLE, SQL, Oracle
correct, plus vendors are free to provide their own drivers so ole isnt necessarily needed
VS 2003 Op. System: Windows XP ok, but what about 95, 98, 2000?
the IDE requires 2000 or later. the apps will/should run on any system that the .net framework can be installed on.
VS 2003 Price of Software for 5 developers?
you might find it varies according to your need.. the pricing is a little too complex to give a one line answer - you may be best deciding what environment youre going to work in and how its going to be laid out, then seek a price from that configuration. an authorised microsoft reseller should be able to tell you pretty quickly
VS 2003 Browser: Is it limited to IE only, and what version of IE is allowed?
in what sense? the IDE itself may use a web browser for stuff like displaying help pages, but it isnt tied to IE. if you create a program, and firefox has an activex style of control that you can drop on your form, then it will use the firefox engine, i'm sure.. i never heard anyone complaining that apps they write in any version of VS force them to use shdocvw.dll (the dll that implements IE among other things)
Software Upgrade: How much will it cost to upgrade from VS2003 to VS2005?
upgrade pricing seems to be about 2/3 of the full cost. i dont know if msdn subscriptions can be upgraded or transferred but i'd imagine so.. (say you bought vs2003 +msdn premium for $2500, and then paid another $550 toupgrade to vs2005, i dont think they would make you pay any extra for the msdn)
this is worth double checking with the reseller at the same time as you check the main pricing as i dont have an msdn sub
I understand VS2003 uses Framework 1.1 and VS2005 uses 2.0. What are the things I must look into during upgrading?
your code needs to compile and work on .net 2
while a bit of a no-brainer, some things got changed and deprecated - they still work but you get warnings to change them. i found that a remoting client in .net2 had problems communicating with a .net server written in 1.1... the solution was simple; upgrade the server to 2.0 (not just the framework but recompile the app too) and it all worked again.
VS 2005 Database : ?
driver support is same as 2003, but the database abstraction is much nicer IMHO. express editions only connect to Access or SQL Server
VS 2005 Op. System: ?
as above, the apps will/should run on any system that the .net framework can be installed on. this *may* exclude 98, as i think support for 98 ended before .net 2 came along fully
VS 2005 Price of Software for 5 developers?
see above recommendation. this page has some prcing info:
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2005/mar05/03-21VS2005PR.mspx
VS 2005 Browser: Is it limited to IE only, and what version of IE is allowed?
as above
Additional features in VS2005 which is not found in VS2003?
there are many, and i think every developer that has worked with the two would say that 2005 is a nicer place. think of the jump from windows NT - very business like, robust, functional but a bit hard edged- to windows 2000 (very much prettier, nicer.. better hci, more logical layout etc)
someone else made the comment of 95->xp is a bit like 2003->2005.. i wouldnt go that far, cos 95 was awful and vs2003 was quite good, robust etc, but i understand the spirit of their question
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one MAJOR thing that moved me to vs2005 very quickly was the restoration of Edit-And-Continue support. If youre here and looking at vb.net then maybe you have a vb6 background and you might feel the handiest thing ever is to be able to run a program, debug a bit of algorithm, look at the results, see the alg is wrong, change it, step the code back 2 lines and re-test it
VS2003 does not do this - you have to restart the app after your code changes, and if you loved that feature about VB6, VS2003 will bug the expletives out of you..
