Is Visual Studio Free

[complete]

Is Visual Studio Free?
It looks free here: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=240
it does not look free here: http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/en-us/try

[InsectEater]

The release from the first link you posted is actually an container for a virtual machine - which is different thing from the Visual Studio product itself. Clicking on link with the more information about it reveals that:
"This virtual machine is based on trial software which will expire on September 10, 2012."
(It is written here: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/briankel/archive/2010/06/25/now-available-visual-studio-2010-rtm-virtual-machine-with-sample-data-and-hands-on-labs.aspx )

So the short answer is - The first link you gave points to a trial and the second link points to the actual product.

[hastingo]

The release from the first link you posted is actually an container for a virtual machine - which is different thing from the Visual Studio product itself. Clicking on link with the more information about it reveals that:

its free for student and teacher.. thats it.. more complicate projects u need to buy it..i mean for compinies that make games or something else

[jnawrocki]

I think there is a free version "Visual Studio Express". It is not supposed to be used for commercial applications.

[complete]

I did a search on "Visual Studio Express" on the microsoft site. Sure there is that. But I also found that I can download the beta of what looks like the next version:
http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/en-us/products/2010-editions/express
It is called Visual Studio 11
http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/11/en-us/downloads#express

I am installinb Visual Studio 11 Beta Ultimate right now. The little graphics for the progression bar looks cool. New things are cool

[jnawrocki]

Remember beta versions usually expire when the production release becomes available.