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I'm kinda surprised that MS continues to charge for visual studio. Not that it isn't worth it because it's an incredible IDE. But because it seems like Microsoft would have more to gain by having more developers using it vs the profit from developer licenses.

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You get more for "free" now. Community Edition allows plugins (like Resharper) where as before it didn't.

The "better" versions only add bells and whistles - which entice people onto MSDN or similar.

Maybe you have it the wrong way round. My experience is limited but these Microsoft product's often make the back-end seem coincidental. If the developer only ever touches the rich GUI then that is the product that is actually valued. Making it completely free could devalue the product and allow non-Microsoft technologies to become dominant. People could seamlessly use Visual Studio to develop products that don't rely on MS products and barely even notice.

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