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Comment by 300bps | Hacker News Reader

Good write-up but the conclusion is completely wrong:

Costs Involved...This is the point where C# really sucks. Almost every tool, OS, IDEs and plugins, are paid.

Anyone can download Visual Studio 2013 Express edition. The Express edition has been free since Visual Studio 2005. Here's a download link:

http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/eng/downloads

Click on Visual Studio Express.

Of course, there are limitations but there are fantastic projects out there that have been made with all free Microsoft development tools. Visual Studio 2013 Express is really an amazing, free development environment. Combine it with SQL Server 2012 Express which is the free version of SQL Server that works on databases up to 10 GB and you can see you can do a lot with free Microsoft software.

See more info on Visual Studio Express here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Visual_Studio_Express

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Don't think you're being unbiased here. Using C# inevitably means you will be shelling out for various tools along the way that you would never have paid for if you went with something like Python. Granted, if your business is making any money these costs are not going to have any real impact, but passing it off as 'no costs' is silly.

Funny you mention python as, until last month when PyCharm community edition was released, there was no decent and free IDE for python. :)

I can't think of any tools for .net that are really must-haves and that cost money. Maybe resharper but you can survive without it. There are free profilers, decompilers, analysis tools, SCMs, you name it. The only thing you don't get with express is integration with plugins in the IDE. Using .NET with free tools is also easy, connecting to MySQL is just as easy as to MS SQL Server to give an example.

Meanwhile, Python Tools for Visual Studio is a great IDE for Python, IMHO. Of course, being a free plugin for VS, you need a paid license of VS to use it.

No you can just download the free isolated/integrated Visual Studio shells - PTVS works just fine. And, imho, it's the best Python IDE I've worked with (I mostly use pandas/numpy/scipy)

I think you just need VS shell, which is free.

> there was no decent and free IDE for python.

Eclipse has supported Python(with code assist,and class introspection) quite well for a long time before Pycharm. So it's not true.

Anyway most Pythonlsts only use text editors.

Don't think you're being unbiased here

How am I biased? I don't work for Microsoft. If using a technology stack makes one biased and thereby (as you imply) invalidates their opinion, then let's just shut down Hacker News right now because nobody is capable of expressing an unbiased opinion in your opinion.

The reality is that Microsoft has free development tools that millions of people use - for free.

Just to throw in another point here - while the development tools may be free, licencing SQL Server(s) for production use can be very expensive & convoluted.

licencing SQL Server(s) for production use can be very expensive & convoluted.

It's not convoluted at all.

Want a free on-premises database? Simple. Use SQL Server Express. That will handle a database up to 10 GB.

Want to have Microsoft host your SQL Database for you? Simple. Use Windows Azure SQL Database. $10 per month for 1GB and then $3.96 per GB per month after that up to 10 GB and then cheaper from there.

Have you ever even looked into using Microsoft software or did you just immediately dismiss it without looking at it?

You are not forced to use it. Pick any of dozens of others.

You can use SQL Server Express commercially.

Ok, but you will lose the plugins support and will also have to change the Visual Studio Express with you want to work in another project type (web, mobile and so on).

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