From: Jason Weber Sent: Friday, March 31, 2006 5:24 PM To: Jamie Cansdale Cc: Grant Drake Subject: Follow-up Information Hello Jamie and Grant, Thank you for taking the time to talk with Craig and myself yesterday. I believe that we're making forward progress and look forward to a rapid resolution. Below are the links to our VSIP programs, technical benefits package, and general information that I promised to send. The Visual Studio extensibility site can be found here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/extend/ After becoming an Affiliate (free) member you can download the Visual Studio SDKs from here. We're about to ship the v2 Visual Studio SDK which provides Iron Python tools, improved language integration frameworks, Team Foundation Server integration libraries and documentation, and lots of other improvements. We release CTP's of the SDK every month and a full SDK about every four months. We welcome your feedback! https://affiliate.vsipmembers.com/login.aspx?err=cannot_find_user You can find information about joining the VSIP program here. Our next developer lab is April 10th-14th and we have over 100 VSIP partners attending from around the world. These devlabs would provide you with opportunities to work with our engineers to better integration your products into the Visual Studio Standard+ product family. http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/partners/ As an Alliance and Premier VSIP partner you receive benefits ranging from an MSDN subscription, to paid product support incidences, to co-marketing opportunities. These are the opportunities that Craig discussed yesterday and include discounted booths at tradeshows, inclusion in our online catalogs, placement in the annual "Visual Studio Technologies" booklet, discounts on direct mailings through MSDN flash, announcements via the Visual Studio Start Page, and other opportunities. If you would like to purse these opportunities please contact the team through this website. https://affiliate.vsipmembers.com/partnerengagement.aspx Finally the partner catalog can be found here: http://catalog.vsipmembers.com/catalog/ Please let us know how you would like to proceed! Sincerely, Jason Weber Group Program Manager Visual Studio 425.882.8080 From: Jamie Cansdale To: Craig Symonds Date: Apr 7, 2006 1:11 AM Subject: Moving Forward with TestDriven.NET Hi Craig, I'm glad we were able to have a frank discussion about TestDriven.NET and its integration into the various Visual Studio SKUs. Over the last few days I have been giving serious consideration to what you said and to the various positive ways forward that we could follow. I am certainly interested in pursuing the type of marketing-based partnership that Microsoft currently offers to enterprise ISVs through the VSIP program. However, I would also like to explore the possibility of buiding a closer, more technology-based partnership. In my opinion, there are two particular areas where such a partnership could be of real value to Microsoft and TestDriven.NET. One is to bring light-weight MSTest compatible unit-testing support to the Standard SKU. The other is enabling support for alternative unit-testing frameworks in SKUs that include the full MSTest functionality. Bringing light-weight MSTest compatible unit-testing to the Standard SKU would resolve the current dilemma faced by many teams inside Microsoft who want to make their unit-tests publicly available. At the moment the choice is between using MSTest which restricts the target audience to users of the Team SKUs and NUnit which is available on all SKUs but isn't a Microsoft technology. Enabling support for alternative unit-testing frameworks by building on the MSTest functionality is something I have already made good progress on. However I was frustrated by certain limitations that restrict how deep the integration could go. As I mentioned during the teleconference, helping customers with a large number of preexisting NUnit tests migrate to VSTS is one of the pain points TestDriven.NET aims to address. The customers I am most keen to target are enterprises who are currently using VS2003 (or even VS2002) who at some point will make the migration to VS2005. TestDriven.NET is all about making this migration less intimidating. I look forward to hearing what you think. Regards, Jamie. From: Jason Weber To: Jamie Cansdale Cc: Grant Drake Date: Apr 11, 2006 6:37 AM Subject: RE: Follow-up Information Hello Jamie, It has been 10 days since we spoke. Have you decided how you would like to proceed? We look forward to your support in quickly resolving this matter. Thank you! Jason Weber Group Program Manager Visual Studio From: Jamie Cansdale To: Ben Miller Date: Apr 11, 2006 11:32 AM Subject: Changing Specialty Hi Ben, I notice that I'm no longer an MVP for ASP.NET. At the end of last year Jason Weber forwarded my details to Mark Colburn, recommending me as an MVP for Visual Studio Extensibility. I was wandering if you would mind contacting Mark to see how this is progressing. I'd would hate to lapse as an MVP for this season! On 12/8/05, Jason Weber wrote: > > 4.) I've sent your name to Mark Colburn, the program manager who drives > our Visual Studio ecosystem team. Mark is looking for Visual Studio > Extensibility MVP's, and as we discussed I believe you would be a great > addition to the program, and it would be much more applicable than your > current ASP.Net MVP involvement. Please look for mail from Mark in the > coming months. Thanks, Jamie. From: Jamie Cansdale To: Jason Weber Cc: Grant Drake Date: Apr 11, 2006 11:54 AM Subject: Re: Follow-up Information Hi Jason, Sorry I haven't replied to you sooner. I have actually already contacted Craig with some suggestions that go beyond the scope VSIP. It is still very much at the preliminary stage of discussion. I'll keep you posted once something more concrete has been agreed. I'm optimistic that things are moving in the right direction and that we'll find a satisfactory resolution. Regards, Jamie. From: Jason Weber To: Jamie Cansdale Cc: Grant Drake Date: Apr 11, 2006 3:17 PM Subject: RE: Follow-up Information Jamie, I manage the Visual Studio Ecosystem product team and will be your primary point of contact at Microsoft. Your call with Craig was out of courtesy so that you could discuss with a Microsoft executive and better understand our position. If you have suggestions please work directly with me. I look forward to see your proposal. Thanks - jason From: Jamie Cansdale To: Jason Weber Cc: Grant Drake Date: Apr 13, 2006 1:18 AM Subject: Re: Follow-up Information Hi Jason, I'm glad we were able to have a frank discussion about TestDriven.NET and its integration into the various Visual Studio SKUs. Over the last few days I have been giving serious consideration to what you said and to the various positive ways forward that we could follow. I am certainly interested in pursuing the type of marketing-based partnership that Microsoft currently offers to enterprise ISVs through the VSIP program. However, I would also like to explore the possibility of buiding a closer, more technology-based partnership. In my opinion, there are two particular areas where such a partnership could be of real value to Microsoft and TestDriven.NET. One is to bring light-weight MSTest compatible unit-testing support to the Standard SKU. The other is enabling support for alternative unit-testing frameworks in SKUs that include the full MSTest functionality. Bringing light-weight MSTest compatible unit-testing to the Standard SKU would resolve the current dilemma faced by many teams inside Microsoft who want to make their unit-tests publicly available. At the moment the choice is between using MSTest which restricts the target audience to users of the Team SKUs and NUnit which is available on all SKUs but isn't a Microsoft technology. Enabling support for alternative unit-testing frameworks by building on the MSTest functionality is something I have already made good progress on. However I was frustrated by certain limitations that restrict how deep the integration could go. As I mentioned during the teleconference, helping customers with a large number of preexisting NUnit tests migrate to VSTS is one of the pain points TestDriven.NET aims to address. The customers I am most keen to target are enterprises who are currently using VS2003 (or even VS2002) who at some point will make the migration to VS2005. TestDriven.NET is all about making this migration less intimidating. I look forward to hearing what you think. Regards, Jamie. From: Jason Weber To: Jamie Cansdale Cc: Grant Drake Date: Apr 13, 2006 5:52 AM Subject: RE: Follow-up Information Hi Jamie, I believe that both of your ideas hold great potential and we would be delighted to see you pursue either/both opportunities. You are permitted to extend the Visual Studio devenv based SKU's (Std/Pro/VSTS) with whatever features you like. Many VSIP partners provide higher end features on the Visual Studio Std product line so you would be following a well know business model. Do you have a specific ask of Microsoft? Thanks - jason From: Jamie Cansdale To: Jason Weber Date: Apr 17, 2006 11:58 PM Subject: Re: Follow-up Information Hi Jason, One of the key differentiators TestDriven.NET has from other unit testing add-ins is its support for multiple unit testing frameworks. My plan is to leverage this by providing a bridge between VSTS and the various supported frameworks. There is also an opportunity to bring light weight MSTest compatible unit testing to all devenv based SKUs. In our tele-conference, Craig mentioned that Microsoft plans to introduce testing support to the Orcas Pro SKU. What I would really like to know is how would being able to offer MSTest compatible unit testing support via a VSIP partner's add-in fit with Microsoft's strategy? The scenario I have in mind is when a team inside Microsoft releases unit tests with their sample code (for example the VS SDK, PAG Enterprise Library and MSBee all include unit tests). At the moment these unit tests are only really useful to Team SKU users. By partnering with TestDriven.NET, Microsoft could offer users who don't have access to the Team (or in future Orcas Pro) SKUs an alternative. In order to support MSTest compatible unit testing I would need permission to distribute the following assemblies with TestDriven.NET. Microsoft.VisualStudio.QualityTools.UnitTestFramework.dll Microsoft.VisualStudio.QualityTools.Resource.dll Note, I'm not asking for these assemblies to be made generally redistributable (included in REDIST.TXT). It is in the interest of TestDriven.NET for people to use Visual Studio for their unit testing needs (rather than an alternative IDE or standalone application). Apart from this specific request, I would also like the opportunity to work with the VSTS team to ensure I can offer a great legacy unit testing bridge for the Orcas Pro/Team SKUs. I was also wondering if you could ping Mark Colburn about me changing MVP specialty to Visual Studio Extensibility. I never heard back from him after you suggested this as the end of last year. Thanks, Jamie. From: Jason Weber To: Jamie Cansdale Date: Apr 18, 2006 2:56 AM Subject: RE: Follow-up Information Thank you for your thoughts Jamie. At some point in the future Microsoft may decide to change our SKU features and ship unit testing in Pro or even Standard products, but it's to early to know if that will take place in Orcas. Microsoft would be happy to partner with you through the VSIP program to help make our millions of developers aware of your unit testing technologies. We have several companies who are offering unit testing scenario tools integrated into Visual Studio and would love to include you among that list. In fact last week at the quarterly VSIP developer lab there was a new startup who was building unit testing tools into the full suite and my team spent a full week helping them! The VSTS team supports customers at the VSIP developer labs and I'm sure they would be happy to provide you architectural and integration guidance, help you understand our product offering, and help debug any integration blockers. The VSIP program is our standard model for engaging with Visual Studio partners like yourself, and I believe it would be in your best interest to engage through this program so that you can receive the full spectrum of benefits. Unfortunately we can't give you permission to redistribute these VSTS components for use in the Visual Studio Standard and Pro SKU's. There are technically challenges (servicing, deployment, IA's, etc.) not to mention business challenges (need to license to all VSIP partners, would have to restrict scenario, etc.). Today we don't allow anyone partner to change our SKU lineup. As you know your MVP affiliation was not renewed this year. Based on your current actions and community participation rate I can't award you MVP status. I hope that you will harness your Visual Studio extensibility passions and earn VSIP MVP status over the coming year by integrating through public API's and supporting our community. Also, I should let you know that almost everyone you and James Avery have emailed work for me. My team is aware of our discussions and they've been asked to direct your communications to me. Thank you - jason NOTE: I had emailed Ben Miller. James Avery emailed Josh Ledgard in Dec 05 From: Jamie Cansdale To: Jason Weber Date: Apr 21, 2006 12:25 AM Subject: Re: Follow-up Information Hi Jason, I appreciated your honesty concerning my MVP status and the part you played in not renewing my award. There is one other thing that I need to be completely clear on. Are you saying that if I disable Express SKU support Microsoft will offer me VSIP Premier partnership (if so, for how long?) or are you saying that if I don't disable Express SKU support I will be barred from joining any VSIP program? Should we eventually work together within the context of the VSIP program, I can see that there would be some interesting possibilities. When the Express SKU support is disabled, I will obviously need to point users towards the SKU that was really intended for them. If I was eligible to license and distribute Visual Studio, I could make this available from the TestDriven.NET website. Regards, Jamie. From: Jason Weber To: Jamie Cansdale Date: Apr 21, 2006 2:26 AM Subject: Visual Studio Express Integration Jamie, We haven’t made forward progress over the past month and your delayed email responses lead me to question your commitment towards reaching an amicable solution. As we have discussed on multiple occasions your hacks to integrate TestDriven.Net into Visual Studio 2005 Express violate Microsoft license terms and we ask that you stop distributing these hacks. As we have discussed since December Jamie, we would like to see you harness your passions around TDD and build extensions to the Visual Studio Standard, Professional, and VSTS products. By joining the Microsoft Visual Studio Industry Partner Program and integrating through supported mechanisms you will receive countless marketing, business, and technical benefits that will help your products be successful. The full benefits package can be found here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/partners/ If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to contact me. Jason Weber Group Program Manager Visual Studio Microsoft Corporation One Microsoft Way Redmond, WA 98052 Phone 425.882.8080 Please let me know when your integration has been removed from your website. Thank you! - Jason From: Jamie Cansdale To: Jason Weber Cc: Grant Drake Date: Apr 22, 2006 1:37 AM Subject: Fwd: Follow-up Information Hi Jason, I think you may have missed my email. I remain totally committed to reaching an amicable solution. I'm sure we could move forward in a way that is constructive for everyone. Please can we start building bridges and move on! Regards, Jamie. From: Jason Weber To: Jamie Cansdale Cc: Grant Drake Date: Apr 22, 2006 3:16 AM Subject: RE: Follow-up Information Jamie, I would much prefer that we reached an amicable solution, but I don't feel that we're trending in that direction. I had already replied to this email. To ensure that we're on the same page let me explicitly answer your requests: 1.) We will not allow you to redistribute VSTS unit testing components with your product for use in Standard/Pro SKU's. 2.) We will not allow you to redistribute Visual Studio below Select B pricing (our standard pricing model). 3.) We are not offering you a free VSIP Premier, Open Tools and/or IDE redistribution partnership. 4.) We will not allow you to extend the Visual Studio Express SKU's under any conditions. 5.) You will not be accepted into the VSIP program until you conform to our license agreements. To be clear Microsoft is not going to compensate you for discontinuing your Express extensions. We are willing to work with you through the VSIP program once you are in conformance with our license terms. That said we are willing to entertain any other suggestions you might have. Thanks - jason From: Jamie Cansdale To: Jason Weber Cc: Grant Drake Date: Apr 23, 2006 2:04 PM Subject: Re: Follow-up Information Hi Jason, Thank you for spelling out Microsoft's position so clearly. I find this directness constructive and feel that we're moving forwards. In this same spirit I would like to lay out my position: 1.) All of the interfaces and methods I used to extend the Express SKU are public and documented on the MSDN website. 2.) I have sought legal advice on the Express SKU EULA and as far as my lawyer is aware I am not in breach of the licence. In our second teleconference Ben Miller told me this issue would not impact my MVP status or prospects for renewal (baring Microsoft taking legal action). I feel a constructive way forward would be if Microsoft were to make a gesture of good faith by renewing my MVP award for this season. I would then be happy to remove Express SKU integration from my website and engage with Microsoft through the VSIP program as you have suggested. To be clear I am not asking to be made a VSIP MVP as compensation for discontinuing my Express SKU extensions. I am simply asking not to be punished over an issue that everyone would like to move away from. Assuming we can agree upon this as an amicable way forward, I will publish the following installer on my website: http://www.mutantdesign.co.uk/downloads/TestDriven.NET-2.1.1586_Basic.zip Regards, Jamie. From: Jason Weber To: Jamie Cansdale Cc: Grant Drake Date: Apr 23, 2006 8:14 PM Subject: RE: Follow-up Information It's good to see a realistic solution on the table. Unfortunately your community participation rate over the past year (in any of the communities including VSIP and ASP.Net) is well below the required level. Even if we were to look beyond the MVP code of conduct concerns I don't believe we could justify reinstating you based on participation. We have thousands of customers trying to earn their way into our MVP program and it's important that we maintain a level playing field based on contribution. What specific benefits of the MVP program are you interested in? There may be a way that I can help you out in good faith. I want to find a win/win resolution. From: Jamie Cansdale To: Jason Weber Cc: Grant Drake, Ben Miller Date: Apr 24, 2006 2:04 AM Subject: Re: Follow-up Information Hi Jason, It is only really the community aspect that I'm concerned about. I am pretty well known within the MVP community and I don't want to end up explaining to everyone why I wasn't renewed this year. That wouldn't help me move on. I think you maybe underestimate my participation rate. I admit it has been hampered somewhat by this ongoing situation. Perhaps you could take into account the contributions I didn't make as well as the ones I did. ;o) At this stage I can't think of any other way to reach truly amicable solution. You know my position on the Express SKU licence. The threat of legal action isn't going to move this forward. All I'm asking for is a VSIP MVP lead than I can engage with constructively over the coming weeks. Pulling an add-in that many people enjoy using will inevitably create a delicate situation that may need to be managed. I'm proposing that we work together on this. Does that make sense? Regards, Jamie. From: Jamie Cansdale To: Jason Weber Cc: Grant Drake, Ben Miller Date: May 2, 2006 12:19 PM Subject: Re: Follow-up Information Hi Jason, I'm planning to release a new version of TestDriven.Net this week. I was wondering if you have had any further thoughts on this? Regards, Jamie. From: Jamie Cansdale To: Jason Weber Cc: Grant Drake, Ben Miller Date: May 6, 2006 9:50 AM Subject: Re: Follow-up Information Jason, I have just uploaded a new version of TestDriven.Net. For what it's worth I have removed Express SKU integration. I am now depressed and left feeling burnt by this whole sorry affair. Don't be surprised if this is the last version of TestDriven.Net. Regards, Jamie. From: Jamie Cansdale To: Jason Weber Date: May 11, 2006 9:11 PM Subject: Re: Visual Studio Express Integration Hi Jason, I'm curious to know what the difference between Premier Marketing and Premier Partner Edition membership is. They both cost $10,000/year but Premier Partner Edition appears to be a superset of Premier Marketing. Am I missing something? Thanks, Jamie. From: Jason Weber To: Jamie Cansdale Date: May 12, 2006 11:02 PM Subject: RE: Visual Studio Express Integration Premier Partner Edition provides you the ability to redistribute Microsoft technologies, such as the Visual Studio PPE, our compilers, linkers, etc. at fixed prices and is a superset of the Premier Marketing agreement. Many of our partners don't need to redistribute Microsoft technologies and the legal terms around redistribution add several pages to the Premier agreement, so we provide the Premier Marketing agreement to those customers for convenience. Thank you for not registering your project extender during installation and turning off your hacks by default. It appears that by setting a registry key your hacks can still be enabled. When do you plan to remove the Visual Studio express hacks, including your addin activator, from you product. Thank you! - Jason From: Jamie Cansdale To: Jason Weber Date: May 13, 2006 2:14 PM Subject: Re: Visual Studio Express Integration Hi Jason, The only reason I left the addin activator in was so that I could continue testing a Team SKU alongside a non-Team SKU on my own development machine. To create the registry key necessary to add Express SKU integration, someone would need to know exactly what they were aiming for (as your developers obviously do). I had no intention of showing bad faith and leaking this information! You obviously want me to remove the addin activator component so I have done (see the latest build). If you have any idea how I could run the Std and Team SKUs side by side, I would be grateful if you could let me know. I would rather not resort to using a separate machine or VM for each SKU. Thanks, Jamie. From: Jason Weber To: Jamie Cansdale Date: May 13, 2006 5:59 PM Subject: RE: Visual Studio Express Integration Thanks for removing the activator Jamie! What do you mean by running the Standard and Team SKU's SxS? When these SKU's are installed on the same machine they compose together into a single instance of Visual Studio (using the devenv AppID). For a SKU to run SxS it needs its own AppID like the Visual Studio Express SKU's. If you help me understand your scenario I'm sure we can find a workaround for you. Thanks - jason From: Jamie Cansdale To: Jason Weber Date: May 13, 2006 9:12 PM Subject: Re: Visual Studio Express Integration Hi Jason, The problem I have is that TestDriven.Net behaves differently depending on whether it's running on the Team SKU or one of the lower SKUs. When I install Standard and Team at the same time they compose together to form something that is indistinguishable from just Team. This means I can no longer check how TestDriven.Net behaves when running on the Standard SKU. I hope I'm wrong here, but I don't think it's possible to install the devenv based SKUs using a different AppID and registry root. I know devenv /rootsuffix can get me close, but whatever I put under the new registry root - DTE.Edition still comes back as "Enterprise". Hopefully there is some other trick that will do what I'm looking for. Thanks, Jamie. From: Jason Weber To: Jamie Cansdale Date: May 13, 2006 9:37 PM Subject: RE: Visual Studio Express Integration Ah, I see what you're doing! Whether good or bad this is by design and there's no easy work around. For development purposes you could do something like have your own registry key that exerts your Standard code path. For testing purposes though I would highly recommend using VM's. The only way to safely test Standard is on a machine that doesn't have binaries from higher SKU's installed. This will help you catch scenarios where you're using API's that aren't installed on Std. This is how we test Visual Studio and our aftermarket VSPackages internally and the only reliable approach. Later - Jason From: Jamie Cansdale To: Jason Weber Cc: Ben Miller, Lorna Williamson Date: Feb 22, 2007 12:19 AM Subject: Re: Visual Studio Express Integration Hi Jason, In our teleconference last year with Ben an Lorna you mentioned 3 ways in which you believed I may be in breach of Microsoft's license terms. On this basis that Ben requested that I comply and take down support for the Express SKU's. 1) You said that by using Intellisense I may be in breach of the dissasembly clause in the VS SDK license. 2) You said that by working out how to use an API by looking at the public type and method names I may be in breach of the reverse engineering clause in the VS SDK license. 3) You said that by adding a button to the Express SKU interface I may be in breach of Microsoft's copyright. After the teleconference I said that I would need a statement that I could give to my users about why the Express SKU was no longer supported. I continue to get emails asking why TestDriven.NET no longer works with Express. Please can you confirm that the points above are why you believe I was in violation. Regards, Jamie. Form: Jamie Cansdale To: Jason Weber Cc: Ben Miller Date: Feb 26, 2007 10:37 AM Subject: Re: Visual Studio Express Integration Jason, Your delayed response leads me question whether you ever had reason to believe I was in violation of Microsoft's license terms. If this is not the case I request that you let me know immediately. Any further delay will lead me to re-enable Express SKU support without notice. Regards, Jamie. From: Jason Weber To: Jamie Cansdale Cc: Ben Miller;Lorna Williamson Date: Feb 26, 2007 9:30 PM Subject: Re: Visual Studio Express Integration Jamie, for the reasons we discussed at great length, we believe your various extensions to the Visual Studio Express products necessarily violated the relevant license terms. We don't think it's productive to rehash those discussions. Instead, we encourage you to focus your energies on legitimately extending the Visual Studio products, as permitted under the Visual Studio Industry Partner (VSIP) program and the associated terms and conditions. Thank you, Jason Weber From: Vicki Collins To: Jamie Cansdale Cc: Akim Boukhelif;Lorna Williamson Date: Feb 27, 2007 11:06 AM Subject: Microsoft Most Valuable Professional Award Hello Jamie, My name is Victoria Collins; I'm a member of the Microsoft(r) Most Valuable Professional (MVP) team for UK & Ireland with Lorna Williamson and Akim Boukhelif. I'm contacting you to ask if you would like to be considered for an MVP Award in recognition of your contributions to technical communities over the past year. MVPs are recognized by Microsoft for their voluntary participation in offline and online technical communities. If you are not familiar with the MVP program you can learn more by visiting our web site at: http://mvp.support.microsoft.com. Our web site includes a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) section which provides answers to questions commonly asked about the MVP program and also provides a lot of good information describing the program (http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/mvpfaqs). For your reference, I have posted the top 4 FAQs at the bottom of this e-mail. We are considering you for this award because you have been recommended to us due to your extensive online work within the Visual Developer .NET communities. In order for me to get to know you better, would you mind sharing with me some additional details about your participation in the online communities during the past year and any other contributions you might have made to the community, by filling in the attached "community activities" excel spreadsheet. Please include as much detail as possible (for example: links, total number of web site visitors, total number of online publications or books sold) Responding to this e-mail and to the questions in the spreadsheet is completely voluntary. If you prefer to not respond, your nomination is not affected and you are still under consideration for an MVP Award. If you have questions about the MVP Program, your nomination, or this e-mail, please e-mail me or telephone Akim Boukhelif on +44 (0) 118 909 5132 at your convenience. Currently you are still under consideration for a Microsoft MVP Award. If you are successful, you will be awarded your MVP status on July 1st 2007. Thank you, Vicki Collins UK & Ireland MVP Administrator The Microsoft MVP Programme: Independent Experts. Real World Answers From: Vicki Collins To: Jamie Cansdale CC: Akim Boukhelif;Lorna Williamson Date: Fri, 2 Mar 2007 20:11:43 +0000 Subject: Recall: Microsoft Most Valuable Professional Award Vicki Collins (Brook Street) would like to recall the message, "Microsoft Most Valuable Professional Award". From: Jason Weber To: Jamie Cansdale Date: Apr 17, 2007 5:24 PM Subject: RE: Visual Studio Express Integration Jamie, We just noticed that you recently re-enabled extensions to our Visual Studio Express products: http://weblogs.asp.net/nunitaddin/archive/2007/04/02/express-sku-support.aspx This is extremely disappointing. We spent a lot of time last year explaining to you, over a period of many months, that our Express products are not designed or intended to be extensible. As we also explained to you many times, our license terms for the Express products do not permit extending them with new functionality or by enabling access to latent Visual Studio functionality that we purposely de-activated for our Express products. Your various extensions, in both their former and current incarnations, necessarily violate those license terms and infringe our rights in our products. You are also putting your own customers in a difficult position, since you are encouraging them to breach the license terms, too. We thought that you ultimately recognized this, when you withdrew support for Express from your products last year. We can't help but conclude that, by re-enabling Express support now, in light of all of our conversations (including the email exchange below in February), you have consciously decided to flout our rights. What makes this especially puzzling is that you are undermining the economic model that you rely on for your own products. Nearly all software vendors offer limited versions of their products for nominal or no cost, often as a marketing or entry-level tool. More sophisticated or feature-rich versions of the same software are then supplied at a higher price. We do this with Visual Studio Express (our free products) and Visual Studio Standard and above (our commercial products). You use this model for your own products, the "Personal," Professional" and "Enterprise" versions of TestDriven.NET. Your actions subvert the model that we all rely on. Instead of extending Express, I'd urge you again to focus your energy and talents on extending our commercial Visual Studio products, under the terms of our publicly available VSIP program. Hundreds of other partners are successfully doing this, all the while respecting the restrictions on extending the Express products. There's no reason why TestDriven.NET can't be successful doing this, too. We'd really like to resolve this amicably. Please remove support for our Express products from your software as soon as possible. Please also let me know when you have done this, and confirm that you will not make such support available in the future. If you do not remove support by that date, then this matter will be out of my hands and I will have to turn this over to the lawyers. I really hope it does not come to that. Thank you, Jason Weber Continued here: http://weblogs.asp.net/nunitaddin/archive/2007/05/30/microsoft-vs-testdriven-net-express.aspx