Microsoft Developer Network, widely referred to by its abbreviation, MSDN,
is the portion of Microsoft responsible for managing the firm's relationship
with developers and testers, such as hardware developers interested in the
operating system, and software developers developing on the various OS
platforms or using the API and/or scripting languages of Microsoft's
applications. The relationship management is situated in assorted
media: web sites, newsletters, developer conferences, trade media, blogs and DVD
distribution. The life cycle of the relationships ranges from legacy support
through evangelizing potential offerings.
Websites MSDN's primary web presence at
msdn.microsoft.com is a collection of sites for the developer community that
provide information, documentation, and discussion that is authored both by
Microsoft and by the community at large. Recently, Microsoft has placed emphasis
on incorporation of forums, blogs, library annotations and social
bookmarking to make MSDN an open dialog with the developer community rather than
a one-way service. The main website, and most of its constituent applications
below are available in 56 or more languages.
= Library= MSDN Library is a library of official
technical documentation content intended for developers developing for Microsoft
Windows. MSDN Library documents the APIs that ship with Microsoft products and
also includes sample code, technical articles, and other programming
information. It is available free on the web and on CDs and DVDs for paid MSDN
subscribers. Initially, the disc version was only available as part of an MSDN
subscription and was released on a quarterly basis. However, in recent
times, it can be freely downloaded from Microsoft Download Center in form of ISO
images for CD/DVD releases are no longer published quarterly. Instead, its
release schedule is now aligned with major software releases,.
Since May 2007, Microsoft has also started producing a community CD version
of MSDN Library freely available for download as ISO images on its Download
Center which contains only updated content. The community distribution of
MSDN Library is aimed at developers in countries where broadband Internet
connections are not readily available. Visual Studio Express edition integrates
only with MSDN Express Library, which is a subset of the full MSDN Library,
although either MSDN edition can be freely downloaded and installed
standalone. In Visual Studio 2010 MSDN Library is
replaced with the new Help System, which is installed as a part of Visual Studio
2010 installation. Help Library Manager is used to install Help Content books
covering selected topics. Integration with Visual Studio
Each edition of MSDN Library can only be accessed with one help viewer, which is
integrated with the then current single version or sometimes two versions of
Visual Studio. In addition, each new version of Visual Studio does not
integrate with an earlier version of MSDN. A compatible MSDN Library is
released with each new version of Visual Studio and included on Visual Studio
DVD. As newer versions of Visual Studio are released, newer editions of MSDN
Library do not integrate with older Visual Studio versions and do not even
include old/obsolete documentation for deprecated or discontinued products.
MSDN Library versions can be installed side-by-side, that is, both the older as
well as the newer version of MSDN Library can co-exist.
= Forums= MSDN Forums are the web-based forums
used by the community to discuss a wide variety of software development topics.
MSDN Forums were migrated to an all-new platform during 2008 that provided new
features designed to improve efficiency such as inline preview of threads, AJAX
filtering, and a slide-up post editor. = Blogs=
MSDN blogs is a series of Microsoft blogs hosted under blogs.msdn.com domain
name. Some blogs are dedicated to a product – e.g. Visual Studio, Internet
Explorer, PowerShell – or a version of a product – e.g. Windows 7, Windows 8 –
while others belong to a Microsoft employee, e.g. Michael Howard.
= Social bookmarking= Social bookmarking on MSDN Social was
first launched in 2008, built on a new web platform that has user-tagging and
feeds at its core. The goal of the social bookmarking application is to
provide a method whereby members of the developer community can:
Contribute to a database of quality links on any topic from across the web.
By filtering on one or more tags, users can discover popular or recent links and
subscribe to a feed of those links. Find and follow experts' recommended
sites. Each profile page includes a feed of the user's contributions. Users can
be discovered through a drop-down menu on each bookmark.
Demonstrate their expertise through the links displayed in their profile.
Store their favorite links online. The initial release of the application
provides standard features for the genre, including a bookmarklet and
import capabilities. The MSDN web site is also starting to incorporate feeds of
social bookmarks from experts and the community, displayed alongside feeds
from relevant bloggers. Social Bookmarks was discontinued on
October 1, 2009 = Gallery=
MSDN Gallery is a repository of community-authored code samples and
projects. New in 2008, the purpose of the site is still evolving to complement
Codeplex, the open-source project hosting site from Microsoft.
Software subscriptions MSDN has historically offered a
subscription package whereby developers have access and licenses to use nearly
all Microsoft software that has ever been released to the public.
Subscriptions are sold on an annual basis, and cost anywhere from $2,000 to
$20,000USD per year per subscription, as it is offered in several tiers. Holders
of such subscriptions receive new Microsoft software on DVDs or via
downloads every few weeks or months. The software generally comes on specially
marked MSDN discs, but contains the identical retail or volume-license
software as it is released to the public.
Although in most cases the software itself functions exactly like the full
product, the MSDN end-user license agreement prohibits use of the software
in a business production environment. This is a legal restriction, not a
technical one. As an example, MSDN regularly includes the latest Windows
operating systems, server software such as SQL Server 2008, development tools
such as Visual Studio, and applications like Microsoft Office and MapPoint. For
software that requires a product key, a Microsoft website generates these on
demand. Such a package provides a single computer enthusiast with access to
nearly everything Microsoft offers. However, a business caught with an
office full of PCs and servers running the software included in an MSDN
subscription without the appropriate non-MSDN licenses for those machines
would be treated no differently in a software licensing audit than if the
software were obtained through piracy. Microsoft's MSDN license agreement makes
a specific exception for Microsoft Office, allowing the subscription holder
to personally use it for business purposes without needing a separate
license — but only with the "MSDN Premium Subscription" and even so only
"directly related to the design, development and test and/or
documentation of software projects" as stated in the MSDN licensing FAQ. As
would be expected, any software created with the development tools, along with
the runtime components needed to use it, isn't restricted in any way by Microsoft
either — such software can and regularly is used for business production
purposes. The license agreement refers to several other items in the
subscription and grants additional similar exceptions as appropriate.
An MSDN subscriber is entitled to activate as many copies as needed for
his/her own development purposes. Therefore, if a computer enthusiast has
20 computers that he uses himself for software development, one subscription
allows all 20 of those computers to be running their own separate copy of
Windows, Office, and any other Microsoft product. After a few installations, the
activation keys will stop allowing automatic product activation over the
Internet, but after a telephone call to the Product Activation hotline to
confirm that the installations are indeed legitimate and consistent with
the license agreement, the activations are granted over the phone.
Even though an MSDN subscription is on an annual basis, the license to use the
software, according to the agreement, does not terminate. The individual just
isn't entitled to any upgrades after the subscription has expired. An MSDN
subscription also allows access to obsolete software from Microsoft's past.
Although they aren't included in the regular CD/DVD shipments, subscribers
can download old software such as MS-DOS 5.0 and Windows 3.1 from MSDN Subscriber
Downloads. Such software usually comes in the form of ISO or floppy disk image
files that allow the subscriber to reproduce the original installation
media after the download. Information service
The division runs an information service provided by Microsoft for software
developers. Its main focus is on Microsoft's .NET platform, however it
also features articles on areas such as programming practices and design
patterns. Many resources are available for free online, while others are
available by mail via a subscription. Depending on subscription level,
subscribers may receive early editions of Microsoft operating systems or other
Microsoft products. Universities and high schools can enroll
in DreamSpark Premium program, which provides access to some Microsoft
developer software for their computer science and engineering students. A
DreamSpark Premium account cannot be used to access the subscriber's section
of the MSDN website or its downloads. MSDN Magazine
Microsoft provides the editorial content for MSDN Magazine, a monthly
publication. The magazine was created as a merger between Microsoft Systems
Journal and Microsoft Internet Developer magazines in March 2000. MSJ back issues
are available online. MSDN Magazine is available as a print magazine in the
United States, and online in 11 languages.
History MSDN was launched in June 1992 as a
quarterly, CD-ROM-based compilation of technical articles, sample code, and
software development kits, as well as a 16-page tabloid newspaper, Microsoft
Developer Network News, edited by Andrew Himes, who had previously been the
founding editor of MacTech, the premiere Macintosh technology journal. A Level II
subscription was added in 1993, that included the MAPI, ODBC, TAPI and VFW
SDKs. MSDN2 was opened in November 2004 as a
source for Visual Studio 2005 API information, with noteworthy differences
being updated web site code, conforming better to web standards and thus giving
a long awaited improved support for alternative web browsers to Internet
Explorer in the API browser. In 2008, the original MSDN cluster was retired
and MSDN2 became msdn.microsoft.com. = Dr GUI and the MSDN Writers Team=
In 1996, Bob Gunderson began writing a column in Microsoft Developer Network
News, edited by Andrew Himes, using the pseudonym "Dr.GUI". The column provided
answers to questions submitted by MSDN subscribers. The caricature of Dr. GUI
was based on a photo of Gunderson. When he left the MSDN team, Dennis Crain took
over the Dr. GUI role and added medical humor to the column. Upon his departure,
Dr. GUI became the composite identity of the original group of Developer
Technology Engineers that provided in-depth technical articles to the
Library. The early members included: Bob Gunderson, Dale Rogerson, Ruediger R.
Asche, Ken Lassesen, Nigel Thompson, Nancy Cluts, Paul Johns, Dennis Crain,
and Ken Bergmann. Nigel Thompson was the development manager for Windows
Multimedia Extensions that originally added multimedia capabilities to
Windows. Renan Jeffreis produced the original system to publish MSDN on the
Internet and in HTML instead of the earlier multimedia viewer engine. Dale
Rogerson, Nigel Thompson and Nancy Cluts all published MS Press books while on
the MSDN team. As of August 2010, only Dennis Crain and Dale Rogerson remain
employed by Microsoft. See also
IBM DeveloperWorks DreamSpark
Microsoft TechNet The Code Room
References External links
Official website