> It is perfectly reasonable on their part as a company selling dev tools to do this
The Community edition licensing terms are, at best, awkward. I personally would have the hardest time with the 250 user limit - can I publish a free mobile app without fear this restriction might kick in?
It is not as blatant as the BizSpark / Imagine (DreamSpark) programs, so I guess that's a plus. The end result looks close enough to be considered the same to me.
> I personally would have the hardest time with the 250 user limit
From the document, the text is "more than 250 PCs or users", so my understanding is that a company is limited if it has >= 250 computer users, not 250 customers. E.g. you could have a million free app users and it would be fine.
That fact that I had to preface that with "my understanding is that" means that the document is fuzzy, which is annoying, but at least further documents[2] can clarify a bit:
> - Any individual developer can use Visual Studio Community, to create their own free or paid apps. > - In non-enterprise organizations up to 5 users can use Visual Studio Community. In enterprise organizations (meaning those with >250 PCs or > $1M in annual revenue) no use is permitted for employees as well as contractors beyond... [the exceptions as noted].
[2]: https://www.visualstudio.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Visu...
So you (as an individual not as part of a company) could create a paid or mobile app and have as many users as you want and make as much as you can. If you're a company, then you need to be under 250 PCs, <= $1M, and <= 5 Visual Studio users and you're still good. Exceed those numbers and you have to pay up.
I mean, yeah it's not free-for-all, but "first hit is free" is kind of unfair. A company is not allowed to use it if they have more than "(a) more than 250 PCs or users or (b) one million U.S. dollars... in annual revenues" [1], and if it doesn't meet that criteria, it's usage is limited to 5 concurrent instances. More accurate would be "first hits are free, and you won't start getting charged until you're big enough where you can afford it".
Just making the distinction because I still have friends who think they can't use Community at home if they want to have a side project that makes money.
[1]: https://www.visualstudio.com/license-terms/mlt553321/