REDMOND, Wash., Sept. 2, 1998 — Microsoft Corp. today announced the immediate, worldwide availability of the Microsoft® Visual Studio® development system version 6.0, the complete suite of tools for building scalable enterprise solutions. Integration of these tools with middle-tier application services based on the Windows NT® operating system enables the flexibility and scalability of the Windows® Distributed interNet Applications (Windows DNA) architecture.
Coinciding with the launch at Developer Days ’98 today, more than 115 top companies in the development tools community announced support for Visual Studio 6.0. There are also more than 1,200 commercially available component-based products on Microsoft’s Component Object Model (COM), representing additional resources and support to Microsoft’s development community. A full list of companies with third-party products designed to work with Visual Studio, as well as pricing and packaging information on Visual Studio, can be found at http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/ .
“Microsoft has always been committed to providing developers with the best tools and training to take advantage of the leading-edge technologies,”
said Paul Gross, vice president of the developer tools division at Microsoft.
“Visual Studio 6.0 is another step forward in our ‘digital nervous system’ vision because it enables developers to build distributed solutions that can easily integrate existing systems within the corporation.”
New Visual Studio 6.0
Visual Studio 6.0 includes new versions of the award-winning Microsoft Visual Tools, enabling developers to build component-based solutions. The Visual Studio 6.0 suite includes the Visual Basic® development system version 6.0, the Visual C++® development system version 6.0, the Visual FoxPro® database development system version 6.0, the Visual InterDev
™
Web development system version 6.0 and the Visual J++
™
development system for Java version 6.0 as well as improved integration between the tools and a variety of technologies shared throughout the suite for easy and powerful enterprise development.
In addition to tight integration with Windows NT, Visual Studio 6.0 Enterprise Edition provides open interoperability with existing systems such as UNIX and SNA hosts with the inclusion of technologies such as ActiveX® Data Objects (ADO), Microsoft SNA Server 4.0 and the COM/CICS Transaction Integrator (COM TI).
“Our Loan Origination System serves 4,000 users across 600 branches and is a multitiered Web application built with Visual Studio,”
said Michael Moore, senior vice president of MIS development and Countrywide Home Loans, America’s leading independent home lender.
“Visual Studio provided the team support and development productivity our team of 45 programmers needed. With Visual Basic- and Visual C++-based COM components running on middle-tier Windows NT-based servers, we have been very pleased with the scalability of the system.”
Pricing
Microsoft announced that the estimated retail price (ERP) for Visual Studio 6.0 Professional Edition is $1,079, with an upgrade available for $549, plus a $100 rebate for licenses for Visual Studio 97 or other current versions of Microsoft Visual Tools. The ERP for Visual Studio 6.0 Enterprise Edition is $1,619 ($1,079 for the upgrade version).
Priced individually, Visual Basic 6.0 and Visual C++ 6.0 are available in standard, Professional and Enterprise editions with ERPs of $109, $549 and $1,299 respectively. Upgrade discounts are available for the Professional and Enterprise editions. The ERP for Visual FoxPro 6.0 Professional Edition, Visual InterDev 6.0 Professional Edition and the Visual SourceSafe
™
version control system version 6.0 is $549 ($279 for the upgrade version) per product.
Visual J++ is offered in standard and Professional editions at $109 and $549 respectively ($219 for the Professional Edition upgrade).
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq
“MSFT”
) is the worldwide leader in software for personal computers. The company offers a wide range of products and services for business and personal use, each designed with the mission of making it easier and more enjoyable for people to take advantage of the full power of personal computing every day.
Microsoft, Visual Studio, Windows NT, Windows, Visual Basic, Visual C++, Visual FoxPro, Visual InterDev, Visual J++, ActiveX, Visual SourceSafe, MSDN and BackOffice are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries.
Other product and company names herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.
Note to editors: If you are interested in viewing additional information on Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft Web page at http://microsoft.com/presspass/ on Microsoft’s corporate information pages.
The following table provides a quick summary of the differences between these two versions of Microsoft Visual Studio 6.0.
Third Parties Support Visual Studio 6.0
“With Microsoft Visual Studio 6.0 and BlueWater Systems’ WinDK 2.6, developers can save immeasurable time by writing their device drivers for Windows NT and Windows 98 in as little as a few weeks rather than months. With WinDK, the complicated process of developing device drivers is simplified, saving development costs, reducing time to market and increasing reliability.”
– Paul Lever
President
BlueWater Systems Inc.
“Microsoft Visual Studio 6.0 offers the ability to develop industrial-strength solutions built from components, and its exciting new features will entice both our customers and vendors to develop with it. We are seeing an explosion in the development, use and reuse of components. With ComponentSources’ technologies you can instantly find a prepackaged component available for and compatible with Visual Studio 6.0.”
– Sam Patterson
CEO
ComponentSource
“Microsoft’s new Visual Studio is designed to help developers build high-performance applications, and c-tree Plus is designed to help developers build the highest-performance databases. The increased Internet support Microsoft has added to Visual Studio will bring new dimensions in Web database development when coupled with the flexibility and power of c-tree Plus and the FairCom Server.”
– Franco Cortinovis
Director of Operations
FairCom Europe
“The Mere Mortals Framework and Visual Studio 6.0 provide all the tools necessary to make the shift from building large, monolithic applications. With Mere Mortals, developers can now create flexible, component-based applications that anticipate change both in the users’ requirements and in the software industry.”
– Kevin McNeish
President
Oak Leaf Enterprises
“Partes provides tools and middleware for financial analysts, offering a revolutionary new approach that dramatically improves the quality and speed of the analysis. Using Microsoft Visual Studio 6.0, Partes EDGARView speeds up the search process, making it easier for financial analysts to locate specific filing data quickly and accurately so that analysts spend their time on analysis, not on data entry and retrieval.”
– Mark Schnitzer
President
Partes Corp.
“We are working together with Microsoft to address the needs of millions of developers building applications with Visual Studio construction tools. By facilitating and automating virtually every phase of application development, deployment and management, we are helping developers achieve dramatic increases in productivity and efficiency.”
– Rick Pleczko
Vice President of Marketing
Application Lifecycle Solutions
PLATINUM technology Inc.
“Wise Installation System complements Microsoft Visual Studio by making it easier than ever to distribute applications written with Microsoft tools. With Wise Installation System and Visual Studio, companies can streamline their application deployment and fully realize the benefits of component-based development.”
– Bill Thomas
Chief Executive Officer
Wise Solutions
