Posted on Tuesday, May 22 2012 @ 22:23 CEST by Thomas De Maesschalck
OS News
reports Microsoft's free Express edition of Visual Studio 11 will only support the creation of Metro applications:
Other than the structure of Windows 8 itself - focus on Metro, desktop as an isolated application - this is probably the biggest plain clue yet that yes, people, the desktop is windows 8's Classic. It's there now because Windows 8 is a transitory release, and like the first versions of Mac OS X, users will still need the 'old' applications. Metro is the future, and the only thing Microsoft really cares about.
The product line up for Visual Studio 11 confirms this. Like before, the line up is split between Visual Studio Express editions, which are free, and Visual Studio Professional and Ultimate editions, which are not. Starting with Visual Studio 11, the free Express editions can no longer be used to develop desktop applications. In order to write desktop applications, you're going to need to move to one of the paid editions, starting at $499 retail, or $1199 (renewal $799 per year) if you want an MSDN subscription with your purchase.
