I would have to say...

Ennis Ray Lynch Jr

I don't really like VS 2012 visually but, for the things I do, there are some improvements. For example, edit and continue with lamdba expressions in method is nice. Unfortunately, you have to double enter with typing a watch, and watch intellisense doesn't work. All in all, I would say it is a wash with no compelling reason to upgrade but I wouldn't write it off entirely. Also, the Thread debugging features do crash less.

Need custom software developed? I do custom programming based primarily on MS tools with an emphasis on C# development and consulting. "And they, since they Were not the one dead, turned to their affairs" -- Robert Frost "All users always want Excel" --Ennis Lynch

H Brydon

I like the new language features and bugfixes with the newer compiler versions, but the last Visual Studio IDE version that I really liked was VS6. I use double wide monitors and typically like to have 20 to 30 windows open. This kinda lends itself to the MDI paradigm, which was last best implemented with VS6. I really dislike the sliding tabbed window stuff which is all we get now.

-- Harvey

Mark_Wallace

Too many unfulfilled promises. i.e. the world didn't end.

I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!

YvesDaoust

I hope I'll never have to use VS 2010, way too slow to launch. Fortunately, I won't use 2012 soon since installing the beta broke my system so much that it became perfectly impossible to uninstall/repair/install or whatever. The little I saw of it shows it grew more monstruous than the former. I have worked a lot with VS 2003 and still use it as my main development platform, even though it has several irritating features such as very sloooow debugging. VS 2008 is cool too. Globally speaking, these IDE are marvels. My only regrets are that GUI applications often resist to debugging by not getting you to the very crash location (see what I mean ?). And that the Profiler went away from the standard version. I still love VC6 for being so fast. For a daily usage, little of VC has changed over the successive versions. In recent months, I have used Eclipse a lot more. It doesn't stand the comparison.

JeremyBob

Personally I loved 2005/2008. I didn't mind 2010, but it was slow. I took one look at 2012, and decided I didn't want to use it unless I'm forced to. 2003 and earlier were just plain horrid (though most of my opinion on it is based on coding in .Net 1.1.)

Jonathan C Dickinson

I found 2012 to be much faster than 2008 (and that's on a HyperV VM, i.e. no hardware UI acceleration). Update 2 is especially quick (they got rid of a few of those wait dialogs and mundane things like how fast characters appear on the screen are incredibly fast now). If you use TFS at all the source control explorer is also a lot faster (especially "get latest"), not to mention the parallel project loading (something 2008 is still dreadful at). My cup of tea isn't yours - but I seriously think 2012 is a major step forward. Also, how many extensions do you have loaded up in 2012? Because 2008 didn't have the simple extension framework from 2010/2012 it's a lot more difficult to bog 2008 down with unnecessary crap. Edit: Also Update 2 has a newer, more colorful, color scheme - for those who want it. I personally concentrate on my code more; so all IDEs look the same (colored text on a plain background) - the dull 2012 IDE actually helps with concentration because I get less distracted by the chrome/frame.

He who asks a question is a fool for five minutes. He who does not ask a question remains a fool forever. [Chinese Proverb] Jonathan C Dickinson (C# Software Engineer)

Kashif_Imran

MS could have done worse. Just think of how they went from Win7 to Win8. I am sure the ride from VS08 to VS10 to VS12 will start looking way better. Maybe MS have become sick of the lawsuits regarding competition and monopoly things!

N J Wong

Agree. Also, visually, VS2008 is beautiful. VS2010 suffers from the blues. And VS2012 is really bland and bleak. I have to use VS2008 because of applications running on .NET Compact Framework 3.5 on Windows Mobile and Windows CE devices. Using VS2010 for Windows Forms applications that interact with Crystal Reports. Haven't started with VS2012 because Crystal Reports wasn't ready (SAP just released Crystal Reports for Visual Studio 2012 3 weeks ago). I wish that VS2012 can be skinned to be as beautiful as VS2008. VS2012 is so dull and ugly.

Anna Jayne Metcalfe

In terms of the IDE itself - without a doubt VS2008. We've used it for Visual Lint since upgrading from VS2003, and the experience has been pretty painless and very productive. However, we're now getting to the point where we really need to start using the serious C++ 11 stuff, so an upgrade to VS2012 is in order. My eyes will probably never forgive me.

Anna :rose: Tech Blog | Visual Lint "Why would anyone prefer to wield a weapon that takes both hands at once, when they could use a lighter (and obviously superior) weapon that allows you to wield multiple ones at a time, and thus supports multi-paradigm carnage?"

JimBob SquarePants

A lot of you guys sound really old just now. A few of the comments could be summed up with "I don't like change". VS2012 Is a major step forward in performance alone. Have you read the blog? There were some brilliant articles there explaining the work they did to reduce the memory footprint. http://blogs.msdn.com/b/visualstudio/[^] Loading the toolbox for example is waaay faster in VS2012. Templating, Nuget, first-class support for JavaScript and CSS, better edmx designer, intellisense and intellitracing improvements, extension management, the list goes on... All great features. There's even Git integration coming soon. As far as the IDE theme goes, I switched it to the dark theme and my eyes have thanked me since. It's far easier on the peepers than any prior version.

JimBob SquarePants ******************************************************************* "He took everything personally, including our royalties!" David St.Hubbins, Spinal Tap about Ian Faith, their ex-manager *******************************************************************

Gary Wheeler

Ennis Ray Lynch, Jr. wrote:

the Thread debugging features do crash less

Now that's a ringing endorsement :laugh:.

Software Zen: delete this;

Ryan Criddle

I love 2012, quite a bit faster than 2010 and whilst I understand a lot of people hate the "boring gray", just enable the Dark Theme already and stop whinging! :) It's sexy!

Guy Harwood

Have you used 2012 for a straight week? i despised it at first, but after a week or so i found it more fluid. definitely easier to work in once you get used to it. the 2010 UI seems jarring when i open it now.

---Guy H ;-)---

baffled

Thank goodness the styler is now out so you can change at least some of it from grey. I found it was giving me serious eye strain after just a couple of hours. But I hate the kiddy-crayon graphics and monotone presentation. It does not aid intelligibility. Despite the performance improvements, the presentation seriously affects the usability. I'll be sticking to 2010 for as long as I can.

Jonathan C Dickinson

JimBob SquarePants wrote:

"I don't like change"

Just some of the things that people who complain about VS2012 are experiencing. Not being a victim of those mental processes are a deliberate decision (i.e. "I am going to evaluate VS2012 based on its merits and not what I am accustomed to").

He who asks a question is a fool for five minutes. He who does not ask a question remains a fool forever. [Chinese Proverb] Jonathan C Dickinson (C# Software Engineer)

Tomz_KV

Although VS2012 claims to have a lot of improvements, some changes in my opinion are really not necessary. For example, "no color" IDE, all new icons, the interface for search and replace looks very unprofessional. It does not have a context menu (need to use key board shortcut for copy & paste). Remote debugging is not functioning properly, which is an important feature that I need to use. I tried to find a hotfix but all the articles I have read point to the next update which does not have a release date yet. Fortunately, something can still be done in VS2010. update: I just found out that the update2 CTP is available. The remote debugging is fixed. However, this is the CTP version. It is better to wait for the final release.

TOMZ_KV

ClockMeister

Concur. I keep my copy of VS2008 under lock and key. For the kind of stuff I do on my own I don't see a point in retooling to 2010 or later. I develop primarily desktop and web applications for my own use and to give to friends and family now. For my personal use I'm off the upgrade wagon both with my O/S and my development tools. The stuff I have works fine. -CB

Bob1000

A perfect truth! Despite having the rights to upgrade (downgrade!) to 2012 no one in our company wants to move from 2008, it works well - no correction it works very well! Just wish we had C++ 11 with it. Microsoft stopped listening a long time ago to its users and until they rectify that they will be on a downward spiral!

Donald Wingate

I've been programming professionally since 2000. I've always used the latest version VS and I've always found the new versions to be improvements over previous versions. VS 2012 being no exception. Performance has never been an issue for me because I've always kept my computers up to date with Moore's law. Not that any version has ever been perfect. And there are some annoyances which persist through all versions. But VS is a tool, nothing more. And a good craftsman knows his tools and how to get the most out of them. Regarding VS 2012, if gray isn't your thing, then use the Color Theme Editor extension to get some color back. I did this for a while, but have since switched back to gray. After getting used to the IDEA of it, I find it is true what they say - that the gray is less distracting of what I am actually trying to do, which is get some code written.

KLPounds

For the projects I have worked on, VS2008 was the gold standard. It was the right balance of performance and was relatively lean and stable. Especially with the nighmares our team experienced with VS2005. VS2010 isn't bad, I hate it's sloth like performance and bloat. Some of the little things that were taken out as a result of their WPF agenda (ie. native code printing in color). The intellisense improvements, SQL improvments, and Extension ecosystem however make 2010 the overall most "productive" version for me. The Extensions add to the bloat but hey, if you can't beat em, join em right? I will be migrating a couple small projects to VS2012 in the coming months. My initial tinkering seems that VS2012 is maybe a tick more responsive than 2010. Maybe there is something to all that flat and drab UI. I just have to get past the distractions of what MS has told me is what I asked for as a better way for me to get work done.