It’s not my style to get into “religious wars” regarding operating systems. I am just as likely to be seen using Windows 7 as using X-Windows on Linux. There are many directions I could take such a thread, but actually, I wanted to share with you a reason for feeling good about the likes of Bill Gates and his comerades.  For the past few development cycles (since at least 2010), Visual Studio has been offered in an “Express” version, which is actually free if you give your life story to a webpage. What they send to your email address is your registration code to activate the product. Once activated, it’s all yours. Have a field day.

With prices of entry-level versions of Visual Studio now near $1000, this is a boon to people wishing to contribute open-source software, as well as small businesses. Well, they already had Linux, but now we have something for both platforms. The interface has a different look-feel, but the basic elements are still there, along with syntax highlighting.

I use Visual Basic .NET to build a document interface for electronic texts, and this version allowed me to put the required ActiveX components on the form, along with other widgets. All that is left to do is write the code. Since this program is just for me, and is too specialized for me to think of a good sales idea for my program, I am just writing this code for myself.