Just checked my MSDN subscription - RTM is still not available there. Latest version available is still Windows 8.1 Preview. For anyone curious here's a good list of changes from 8.0 -> 8.1 right from Microsoft:
My sub expires in 3 months and I will not be renewing it. We're freezing dev and moving off .Net and Windows due to shit like this, rising costs, audits and MS support being beyond fucking useless unless you're a multi million pound customer.
And as I've read elsewhere, will be on MSDN around the same time.
I'm curious as to what you mean by "shit like this", as that seems to be quite a broad statement without specifics.
I work for a small'ish ISV, and find the MSDN offering to be quite decent.
Also, make use of your Azure benefits while you still have those 3 months left! http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/pricing/member-offers/msdn...
Historically, Microsoft has released RTM versions to MSDN and TechNet subscribers within a couple weeks after the RTM is official.
With Windows 8.1, you can't get a U.S. based spokesperson to say whether they are continuing this policy. They all say "no comment". Just like when you ask them if Windows 8.1 was RTM'd - "No comment". You gave no citations for anything you said, but I'm guessing you're basing it on the single Microsoft employee from the Netherlands that put out a message that said MSDN/Technet would be released at general availability. That's hardly official.
We're freezing dev and moving off .Net and Windows due to shit like this
A rumor that Windows 8.1 RTM would not be available to MSDN subscribers before GA is "shit like this" that makes you move off of .NET and Windows?
audits
Need an explanation of this one. The only time I've ever heard of an MSDN subscriber getting audited was taking MSDN .iso files and keys and posting them to torrent sites for something like 5 years before they said a word to him.
MS support being beyond fucking useless unless you're a multi million pound customer.
MS development support is useless and always has been no matter how big of a customer you are. The typical chain is: find a problem, report it to MS, solve it yourself, they email you asking for additional information. Been like that for at least the last 15 years. Vendor support is useless anyway when there're much better resources like Google to find quality sites like Stackoverflow.
There are a number of other issues as well (obviously). See another reply in this thread root from me.
We've had 2 audits. They are a reality when your licensing hits the £500k/year which ours does. they check to make sure they have screwed you out of every last bit of cash even if they know you are compliant.
Never been audited. I wonder why you're special?
Its been PDS7, C, perl and Java before (product has been around since the late 1980s). It could be Go or Haskell one day.
We threw out partnership agreement in last year (we were gold).
Not going near Mono. It's another ghetto.
To be honest, our front end is going to python and the back end to postgres. Any critical sections go to C++.
I've had critical telecom services running on Mono for many years; not sure what "ghetto" means there. Xamarin also seems to be doing quite well with their cross-platform initiatives.
I've moved SQL Server apps to Postgres (due to licensing) and back (due to maintenance/replication). On another we're moving to PG again due to licensing. Postgres is great, but holy shit MSSQL provides a huge feature surface that's very accessible (licensing aside). SSMS is a dream compared to the ghetto of PG frontends (in my limited experience).
But if you can easily dump and rewrite, I'll admit, that is fun.