Microsoft phasing out its Expression design tool suite

[Brink]

It looks like it's the end of the road for Microsoft's suite of Expression design tools, as Peter Bright over at Ars Technica notes.

Expression Design 4 is being phased out entirely, though it will be patched through 2015. Expression Web 4 also is being dropped. And Expression Blend -- which made it up to Version 5 -- is being folded into Visual Studio.

Read more at source:
Microsoft phasing out its Expression design tool suite | ZDNet

 

[HerrKaLeun]

good riddance...

I once downloaded the free version from Dreamspark (some MS dealer that gives out free stuff to students) and used the web software for a while. what i needed up with were corrupted pages all the time that for some reason i needed to rename to make them work. i now use dreamweaver and so problems at all. i rather pay $300 for a software than to use that free software (free to students at the time).

I didn't use too much of their graphics software etc., but my impression is it creates too many MS-proprietary files that are not universally accepted.

it seems MS realized not even giving them out free makes people use their products. i really like MS products (windows, Office etc.) but in some areas they are not good at. And professionals spend a lot of time in training and learning to use the tools. A software being cheaper doesn't really help a lot if it isn't up to the task.

 

[Alejandro85]

From the bunch, the only I've actually used is Blend to do some WPF work and to import vector graphics from Illustrator into a XAML Canvas. I wonder how one can do such things so easily without Expression Blend. Is it already included into Visual Studio 2012? Or maybe for a next release?

 

[z3r010]

I use expression web 4 all the time, but when it's time to upgrade I can always go back to dreamweaver.