Since the 2008 release of Visual Studio, we’re grown accustomed to using the term “Team System” or “Visual Studio Team System” (VSTS) to refer to the various SKU’s above Visual Studio Professional including Team Foundation Server. With the recent release of Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2, Microsoft have done away with the “Team Editions” and the name “Team System” is gone.

Having become quite fond of the term Team System for the product set that I specialise in, I was a little put off by the change. The good news is the change is for the better and it will make choosing the right version of Visual Studio much easier for you.

Each of the three main versions, include ALL features of the versions below it. It is a simple additive approach. Specifically, the Premium version includes ALL features in Professional plus some Premium level features like Coded UI tests. The Ultimate version includes features like Intellitrace plus ALL features in Premium and Professional.

The following graphic shows some of the features specific to that version that lower level version do not include.

 

One thing I’ll call out here is that ALL three versions include Team Foundation Server 2010! Cool.

You can find out more information about the different versions by visiting the Visual Studio 2010 First Look page and clicking the “Compare 2010 Products” tab.