Dear Microsoft,
I am the CEO of a Microsoft Gold partner, and MCT, MCSD and MCP with MSDN Premium accounts. I have been a loyal Visual Studio user since it's very first release, and regular engage in the beta and RC programmes.
I have a Visual Studio Online account - didn't really want/need one, but felt I should try it to see if I should move our company (~50 developers) onto it in future, as an alternative to FogBugz/Kiln or straight old Git.
Today I got locked out of Visual Studio. Up until now I've been running VS2013 Ultimate as a trial. My license expired, due to the MS cutting Ultimate license benefits for the competencies we have (although we are on the verge of an ALM competency).
I downgraded VS to VS Premium 2013 (uinstalled ultimate core), and despite repeated attempts (signing in and out again, reinstalling, etc.) I get 'Downloaded License is insufficient'.
My MSDN subscription is linked to the same account that is the owner of my VS online account, and the same account that is listed as a User and has next to it 'VS Premium with MSDN' in the License column of User Management page.
You have ruined Visual Studio with this broken DRM. DRM is bad enough, broken, buggy DRM is a slap in the face of genuine customers.
A number of my team have switched to JetBrain's WebStorm recently, and swear by it. I always felt VS was an amazing product that clearly benefited by the developers eating their own dog food, but now some idiot middle level manager has managed to ruin the un-ruinable.
Please can I have access to my IDE, I actually have real work to do and you've just screwed me up badly.
Sincerely,
Craig Dean
Chief Executive
Web Applications UK Ltd
Craig Dean (MCPD)
Chief Executive
www.webappuk.com
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