[pauloortins]

Joshua, a developer costs $100k per year in United States.

Now consider India, Latin America and other countries.

For example: I live in Salvador - Brazil here a developer costs $10k-$20k per year.

In this scenario, this tools represent between 50%-100% of the developer cost.

I think that in India it's even worst.

[taspeotis]

The example was for the top tier VS Ultimate with MSDN. Depending on your requirements Express might suit you.

Which is 0% of the developer cost.

[pauloortins]

Working without plugins support is not a option for me. We have to always try use the most productive environment and if we can't do it due licenses cost, it's time to analyze the platform.

[taspeotis]

So you need at least Professional, which is 1/10 the cost of Ultimate. Which puts your percentages closer to 5-10%*

*Based off your claim that a developer is 10 to 20k and assuming USD I converted the prices from here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/pt-br/subscriptions/buy.aspx

Note retail can be cheaper, but you don't get MSDN with it.

[joshuaellinger]

Ah... that is a really good point. It is so easy to get blinded by being in the US.

Thank you for the clarification.

However, at those salaries, I could hire you and 2 of your friends, pay for the tools, and still come out at $100K.

I've got a tremendous amount of respect for technical talent in the rest of the world (i.e. -- most of the smart people in the world don't live in SF) but the problem I have is that I have no clue about how to find, hire, and manage really good people outside of the US. Hell, it is hard enough with a common language and culture.

[hhandoko]

I've always thought that Microsoft tools are priced accordingly to the region, I assume that it's adjusted depending on the purchasing power of the consumers?

e.g. Visual Studio costs $500 in the US, but it's at least twice that here in Australia.