Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio: for now on, it's a free download
By Joseph L. Flatley 
posted May 21st 2010 9:29AM
posted May 21st 2010 9:29AM
We've seen plenty of interesting projects roll out of Microsoft's Robotics Studio, but the Robotics Developer Studio package of programming and design tools has not been the smash success that the company had hoped. In a move to expand its user base and drum up grass roots support, the company has done something that might have once been unthinkable: As of today, they're giving away the store, making the RDS available as a free download from the company's website. "We decided to take out all of the barriers that today our users might have in order to help them build these new technologies," Stathis Papaefstathiou, the head of the robotics studio, told IEEE Spectrum. Finally, a little help for the DIY robotics enthusiasts out there! Hit the source link to get started.
if you have to for now on, you blew it
@From My Cube
something doesn't sound right... shouldn't that read "from now on..." ?
@From My Cube
;)
@From My Cube I would recommend putting "for now on" in quotes, because I had to read that like 5 times before I understood what you were writing.
"If you have to "for now on", you blew it"
This is how skynet gets built.
@a piece of cheeze
I'm pretty sure the folks over at gizmodo said skynet was being built by google yesterday.
well I for one....
will gladly get this software and put it to good use!
@stasguy
Well, I, for one...
... thought that was pretty funny, even though nobody else seems to have gotten it. :(
You just know the guys who work on this stuff are like,
"I work at Microsoft, the most powerful company in Washingtong State?"
"Wow, that's really cool...What do you do there?"
"Uh... um... you know... this and that"
I PREFERRED TRAIN STIMULATOR PERSONALLY
@AnonymousTrain
I preferred lowercase personally
@AnonymousTrain nice one!
I preffered Courier by Microsoft but thought better of it and brought this out instead. What a terrible shame that was.
This totally looks like an army of robots wearing mickey mouse pants.
Quadro FX 540?!? Me thinks you need to be more concerned about your computer hardware before you get to worried about the future of robotics.
Less than 9fps @ 800x600 GTFO.
This is totally super-awesomely relevant to my interests.
/pets the same pioneer 3 that's in the screenshot, it's sitting next to me and so loyal!
What is the real news here? Versions of the Microsoft robotics toolkit have been free from the very beginning (starting in 2006). Only if you planned to use the technology in commercial applications was there a charge, and that was later revised so that your could get a free Express Edition that contained 90% of what was in the Standard Edition. So all that's happening here is that they have decided to stop trying to charge anyone. All this announcement indicates is a simplification of the licensing process. They probably weren't selling that many Standard Editions anyway.
"We decided to take out all of the barriers..." So it no longer requires Windows?
It's free alright; all you have to do is put yourself in a complete vendor lock-in...