Updated: July 13, 2020 (February 6, 2000)

MSDN Goes Monthly and Drops MCSE Discount

As managing vice president, Rob Helm covers Microsoft collaboration and content management. His 25-plus years of experience analyzing Microsoft’s technology... more

The MSDN (Microsoft Developer Network) subscription program has increased the frequency of disc shipments from quarterly to monthly and dropped subscription discounts for Microsoft Certified System Engineers (MCSEs), effectively raising prices for a large group of subscribers. The contents of the latest shipments also send a clear message to developers: with the release of Windows 2000, Windows NT 4.0 is legacy software.

The MSDN program provides developers with documentation, programming tools, and platform software, and enables developers to order Microsoft products at substantial discounts. There are currently three levels of subscription:

Library. This subscription delivers developer documentation, most of which is also available free on Microsoft’s MSDN Web site, for US$199 a year at full U.S. retail.

Professional. This subscription delivers everything in Library plus all of Microsoft’s shipping operating systems, and all of its software development kits (SDKs), for US$699 a year.

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