Microsoft offers upgrade deal for developers

C|Net | at | by Mike

Microsoft announced on Tuesday two new programs for those looking to move to its next generation of developer tools software.

First, the company said that the retail version of Visual Studio 2010 Professional will come with a one-year trial version of its MSDN program, known as MSDN Essentials. Though they won't get access to as full a range of free Microsoft software, MSDN Essentials subscribers will get access to Windows 7 Ultimate, Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise, and SQL Server 2008 Datacenter R2 for development and test use, along with 20 hours of Windows Azure use.