Can I get the bits?
In my previous post, I mentioned that I had VS08/VSTS installed - lucky me :-). I, along with my colleagues, have had some requests for the bits. This being mainly due to the hassles our bandwidth etc.
Unfortunately, we cannot give out these bits. Why not:
1) The bits we have are internally propagated onto our shares and product keys embedded in them. It is simply a huge offense (for which we could be fired) to give out these bits. Right now these are the only bits we have. Furthermore these are layed out for a network install.
2) Our bandwidth at Microsoft is as bad, it not worse, than you might have. Our internal bandwidth is not bad - but the Internet connectivity is bad. Often,I get better download speeds off my ADSL at home.
3) Branding/Legal/Support Issues. This is probably the biggest issue. Giving out software in an ad-hoc fashion, especially released software, creates problems with respect to support. For example what happens if I had a virus on my drive and you copied some bits off it. With the exception of the Express bits, we would also need to take into account what MSDN Subscription you have and this would become very difficult logistically.
Having said that we are looking at ways of getting the Trial Edition. I know Willy in the past has got the VPCs sent to him via courier.