Can Visual Studio Community be used in commercial projects?

Question

I read this week that there is now an edition of VS called Visual Studio Community. Already has the 2013 version to download and will have the 2015 as soon as it comes out. From what I was reading, from VS 2015 will no longer exist the Express and will only have this version Community.

What I didn’t understand very well was the limitation imposed in this Community version. It is much more complete than the old express versions. I read in that article that the new Community version can be used in any projects (commercial and non-commercial) as long as it is not by a company and is a team of up to 5 programmers.

Already on the Microsoft website says this:

Download Visual Studio Community for a free, full-featured IDE with Powerful coding Productivity Features, cross-Platform mobile Development tools for Windows, iOS and Android, and access to thousands of Extensions. This Edition of Visual Studio is available at no cost for non-enterprise application.

But I was in doubt if this "non-enterprise application Development" means "development outside companies" as it says in the article or if it means "development of applications that are not for companies".

So my question is this: a programmer who works alone, or with a team of at most 5 programmers, provided you work on your own outside of a company you can use VS Community in any project whether commercial or non-commercial and whether open source or closed source?

Answer 1

Yes, you can since you nay is developing within an undertaking under the following conditions:

• has more than 5 developers using this version (very rare projects have more than 5) or
• is in a large corporation (250 computers or annual billing above 1 million dollars, which is not so big (a outsourcing can solve).

The limitation is just this. If you fulfill this you can use it to do whatever you want. And remember that we are talking about Visual Studio.

The . NET was totally free, mit license, therefore more open than most other platforms on the market.

Non-enterprise in this case means outside large companies. In the US the term is used only for large companies. Here’s a better definition of what it is Nterprise. Look for How do you define “non-enterprise app”.

It is still possible to use it if your company does not meet these conditions. But it can only be used for educational purposes (teaching and research) or projects open source. There is a restriction on the type of project if the company does not comply with the aforementioned size limitations. But think about the company you are developing and not the company that will use the final application.

Individual use is obviously fully released. Even if its development serves large companies indirectly.

Source: Microsoft.

In fact it’s not clear every detail but there leaves clear basis that what matters is the development environment. Nor has there to limit the use of software created in VS. It would be impossible to prevent even if only legally (nor do I speak technically because it is obvious that you cannot prevent).

The fact is that this new license refers only to Visual Studio and it is only used at development time. After your application left there no matter where it was built, whether it was in Express, Community, Ultimate, Pirate, Sharpdevelop, Notepad or any other way. It does not matter who will use the final application, whether it will be sold or given, whether it is open or proprietary.

What is unclear, at least it leaves open, if you work for a development company or large company that develops its own software that has more than 5 developers but they are not employees of it, do these people count together? If they work essentially remotely, does it count? If they work there in a part of the time but with their own notebook, this developer account? I don’t know, in practice it seems difficult to supervise, I doubt anything will happen if you can explain why there are more than 5 developers using the VS Community on site not permanently by arrangements that were not the company that provided. But at this point it is only my opinion. I think it’s going to get more into each other’s consciousness in borderline cases.

It even includes Xamarin which can be used without restrictions. Of course the Visual Studio Enterprise provides more advanced tools, and this is always paid for.

Answer 2

Q: Who can use Visual Studio Community?

R:

• See how the developers individual can use Visual Studio Community:

  • Any individual developer can use Visual Studio Community to create their own free or paid apps.

• See how Visual Studio Community can be used in organizations:

  • A number boundless users within an organization can use Visual Studio Community for the following scenarios: in a classroom learning, to the academic research, or to contribute to open source.

  • For all other use scenarios:
    In organizations nonbusiness, up to 5 users can use Visual Studio Community.
    In organizations entrepreneurial (that is, those with> 250 Pcs or> $ 1 MM of annual revenue), it is not allowed the use beyond the open source, the academic research and the scenarios of the classroom learning environment described above.

http://www.visualstudio.com/products/visual-studio-community-vs Google Translator