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Windows Mobile Development No Longer Free

Posted by timothy on from the listen-to-your-inner-rms dept.

Jacco de Leeuw writes "Windows Mobile developers have enjoyed free development tools like the eMbedded Visual Tools and that in turn has helped popularize Windows Mobile devices and a number of free or cheap applications. But now the SDK for the upcoming Windows Mobile 5.0 has a number of 'technical (not political) dependencies' on Visual Studio 2005, which starts at $299. Is it time for an open source Windows Mobile toolchain?"

5 of 75 comments (clear)

  1. You do realize... by Johnny+Doughnuts · · Score: 3, Informative

    You can get Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Beta 2 for free right now.

    1. Re:You do realize... by R.Mo_Robert · · Score: 2, Informative

      Yeah, free with an MSDN subscription. Or a "nominal fee" if you're not a subscriber. You're probably confusing it with the beta Express editions, which currently are free for the downloading. But it'll still cost you $50 per product when they're released.

      --
      R.Mo
    2. Re:You do realize... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      1. It is a beta.
      2. The EULA forbids distributing apps built with it.
      3. It is time limited (or it builds apps that are time limited, can't remember).
      4. People in some countries still have to pay S&H.

  2. This is actually how it used to be by Dancin_Santa · · Score: 2, Informative

    Before the eMbedded Visual Tools v3.0 came out, the toolset was actually a set of Visual Studio 5.0 add-ons that integrated with a base VS installation. From 3.0 until now, the tools have been separate from Visual Studio (mostly because of major compatibility problems with the internal eVC database and VC6).

    However, the plug-in architecture seems to have been fixed in the latest VS.Net bits, so the original plan (to let the VS team do all the heavy lifting and the Mobile team to reap the benefits of a dedicated IDE team while concentrating on the OS) seems to have been reborn.

    While it is a pain for developers, in that they will now be required to own a copy of VS, this actually bodes well for the Mobile team and its products.

  3. Re:No by sonamchauhan · · Score: 2, Informative

    > > Too bad windows is where the users are.
    > Not on embedded devices.

    Microsoft Now Leads in PDA, Embedded OS