I do not blame Microsoft for their pricing strategy on Team System. After all, you can't pay for a Pinto and get a new Cadillac. Why would you expect otherwise? Well, that is the problem. This
was what we were expecting. We were not told that it was a five year development effort costing millions of dollars but we should have known. We were not told (well, Eric Sink
DID warn us along with a few others) that VSTS was
not a copetitor to Microsoft Project, Vault, and FogBugz but a competitor to Rational ClearCase or BitKeeper but we should have known. I think the real problem is that we did not really read the right information. What we read was that Team System had Unit Testing and bug tracking and many of the wonderful features that many of us want to use. What we read was inadequate. It is really as simple as that. The technical information may have been correct but the schematics were wrong and in many different aspects missing all together.
So, before we send Microsoft to the guillotine let us all keep in mind that they are a
business that has many shareholders that demand profits that will never get returned by going to the ends of the earth for a bunch of adolescent geeks like ourselves. We ARE the real power of Microsoft but nothing is free and I don't really think Microsoft owes me much of anything. Also, keep in mind, that if Microsoft
really was the evil empire, almost every MSDN Universal subscriber in the world would be shelling out some serious bucks for violating the terms of the MSDN Universal subscription but I digress. You are all ready getting more than you are paying for so hold your tongues and open your wallets if you REALLY want Team System.