Visual Studio 2017 RC used in commercial environment

Question

As you know, the RC for Visual Studio 2017 is out for some time.

VS 2017 RC

But I have trouble finding some answers to some questions I have. I work for a big company, here in Romania as a programmer. And my job is to code all kind of internal tools, used only here in the company in .NET, Visual Basic.

Right now I have VS 2010 Professional. And because I want to use the best of the Visual Studio, I was wondering if I can use this RC build. I can't buy this, because it is not final. So:

1. I talked to people from my company responsible with licensing and software acquirement. But they don't know about this situation with the RC build... and they are not even interested to find details.
2. Then I went to Microsoft Romania. They haven't heard that a new VS edition was launched. They gave me a number to call, in Germany.
3. I called Microsoft Germany, but I talked with an Indian that was telling me to buy the 2017 edition, and I was telling him that this is not final so it doesn't have a price.

Of course, Microsoft wont tell me that I can use freely their software or all benefits that I have, so I am asking some questions. Maybe some of you faced this problem before:

1. Can I use this version of RC at my company? What happens when this edition will be final? Do I have to buy the final one , or I can stay with the RC build (and with all the bugs that comes with)?
   2. If not, can I use another version, freely, but newer than 2010?
   3. Do I need a commercial license for the internal tools I use? I don't sell the code to anybody, it is used only internally. Do I still need a commercial license?

Thank you!

P.S. If this question does not fit here, please guide me where to post it and get a proper answer.

Answer 1

As far as licensing is involved, it seems that you can use the prerelease version, but it comes with no guarantee of support. Whether your organization will allow it is up to them, especially as there is risk.

From the Release Notes, it says:

While Visual Studio 2017 RC in general is supported for use in a production environment, those workloads and components that are marked “Preview” in the installation UI are not supported for use in a production environment.

So, for example, in the current RC, you would not be able to use .NET Core in production, since it is marked as "Preview".

In the license agreement, it also doesn't say you can't use it, but it does have limitations (emphasis added):

1. INSTALLATION AND USE RIGHTS.

a. General. You may use copies of the software to develop and test your applications.

b. Cloud Use. You may run Visual Studio Enterprise 2017 and Visual Studio Professional 2017 prerelease software on Microsoft Azure.

c. Demo Use. The uses permitted above include use of the software in demonstrating your applications.

2. PRE-RELEASE SOFTWARE. This software is a pre-release version. It may not operate correctly or work the way a final version will. Microsoft may change it for the final, commercial version. Microsoft is not obligated to provide maintenance, technical support or updates to you for the software.

3. TIME-SENSITIVE SOFTWARE. The software is time sensitive and will stop running on the date that is defined in the software and your license right to use the software also ends. You may not be able to access copies of code or other data stored in the software when it stops running.

Answer 2

RC (Release Candidate) is a preview or Beta version. It's not a final version and not meant for usage per your requirements.

If you're using Visual Studio 2010, you could take advantage of one of the releases that have been published since your version. There is 2013 and 2015. If I were you, I'd either wait until 2017 is available in an actual release version or if you don't want to wait, upgrade to VS 2015.

Answer 3

Not anymore RC but it's worth to mention as it comes up googling for the commercial use of VS2017 community.

This link https://www.visualstudio.com/license-terms/mlt553321/ reports the rules very clearly.

You can develop and test you applications to sell or any other purpose, even in a team, up to 5 devs, if you're NOT an enterprise!

'enterprise' means => >250 people || revenue >=1 Mln dollars (or equivalent)

For open source, educational, windows drivers, visual studio extensions, there are no limitations.