1.  What is Microsoft Visual Studio Team Explorer Everywhere?
Microsoft Visual Studio Team Explorer Everywhere 2010, unites your development teams across platforms. Team members can access Visual Studio Team Foundation Server to collaborate and track progress from within the Eclipse IDE to develop Java and .NET applications using any major OS including Windows, Linux and Mac OS X.

Team Explorer Everywhere is based off the Teamprise technology which Microsoft acquired to incorporate in its Visual Studio 2010 development tools suite and to evolve in future releases. 

2.  Who can benefit from Visual Studio Team Explorer Everywhere? How?
Developers currently using the Eclipse IDE or working from other operating systems such as Linux or Mac OS X can access Microsoft’s Team Foundation Server from within the Eclipse-based IDE they are used to.  This enables developers working in heterogeneous environments to take advantage of the benefits of Team Foundation Server to build higher-quality applications in a team environment. 

3.  Why did Microsoft decide to acquire these Teamprise assets?
Microsoft recognizes the heterogeneity of development shops; the purchase of the Teamprise technology demonstrates our continued commitment to interoperability and our dedication to enabling customers to achieve greater business results, regardless of their current tooling. 

4.  When will the Teamprise technology be incorporated into Visual Studio?
Microsoft is committed to the future of the Teamprise-based technology and incorporated these tools into Visual Studio Team Explorer Everywhere 2010, with Microsoft’s release of Team Explorer Everywhere 2010 available for the Visual Studio 2010 launch. Team Explorer Everywhere is available at the Estimated Retail Price of $299 (USD) and will include the Teamprise-based technology and will support a large portion of the Team Foundation Server 2010 feature set while still being compatible with Team Foundation Server 2005 and 2008 versions. This product will require a Team Foundation Server Client Access License (CAL) sold separately to connect to Team Foundation Server at the Estimated Retail Price of $499. The new product will also be included as an MSDN subscription benefit for customers with Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate with MSDN.  

5.  How is this acquisition good for customers? 
This acquisition of assets offers a number of benefits to customers, including:        

  • Customers will benefit from Microsoft’s stability and commitment and investment in interoperability technologies such as the Teamprise technology.
  • Microsoft’s global reach through its sales and partner channels will enable the Teamprise-based technologies to be sold to many more customers than is possible today, creating a larger, more stable and more enterprise tested product.
  • Current Teamprise customers will continue to receive support for their Teamprise products from SourceGear.  They will also receive a free upgrade offer to Team Explorer Everywhere.(more details below)

6.  What is the Teamprise customer upgrade offer to Team Explorer Everywhere?
Teamprise Customers with license rights to a v3.x or higher Teamprise product and a corresponding Team Foundation Server Client Access License (CAL) at the time of the release of the Microsoft-branded Teamprise-based product will be granted a free upgrade to Team Explorer Everywhere. The number of licenses granted will be equal to the number of licensed seats of Teamprise products, but only to the extent the customer also already owns a corresponding number of Team Foundation Server CALs (v.2005, 2008 or 2010). After the release of Team Explorer Everywhere , Teamprise customers will be granted at least 90-days to purchase upgrade rights (Microsoft Software Assurance) on the Microsoft licenses conveyed in this grant.  The relevant Teamprise products to which this offer applies are Teamprise Client Suite, Teamprise Plug-in for Eclipse, Teamprise Explorer Client, and Teamprise Command-Line Client.

7.  Will this upgrade offer be available to Teamprise customers who owned maintenance upgrade rights to v3 Teamprise products but didn’t upgrade and their rights to upgrade lapsed prior to the Microsoft release?
This upgrade offer will also apply to all customers who owned the rights to upgrade to v3 Teamprise products as of November 3, 2009, even if they did not exercise those upgrade rights and their maintenance agreement with Teamprise expired between November 3, 2009 and the date of the Microsoft release.  

8. “I’m a current Teamprise Customer, how can I get access to the Visual Studio Team Explorer Everywhere bits / licenses”?
http://www.microsoft.com/pathways/teamprise/teamprise v3.x.htm .

9. What happened to the Teamprise Explorer stand-alone client?
The Teamprise Explorer client relies on several redistributable components of the Eclipse framework. These components created some additional servicing, and intellectual property concerns which we were not able to address in time for the initial release of Team Explorer Everywhere. We are committed to shipping this client in a future release once all of the issues have been addressed.