Microsoft put a knife in Expression Suite

Microsoft will stop its Expression Studio suite, a series of programs for web design. Expression Design 4 and Expression Web 4 are no longer being developed and are free to download. The tool Expression Blend is now as an option for Visual Studio offered.

The Expression suite by Microsoft in 2006 to be released. The package consists of the vector-tekentool Expression Design, html and css editor in Expression Web, xaml tool, Expression Blend and the media encoder Expression Encoder. However, Microsoft has decided the knife to put in the Expression suite. So, there will be no new version be developed from Expression Design. The current version 4 is not for sale and is now free to download. Updates to 2015 offered.

Expression Web 4, css, and html editor, undergoes the same fate. According to Microsoft, enables developers and designers better-off in Visual Studio 2012 and WebMatrix 2. The SuperPreview Remote Beta service that allows developers of web pages can test it on several browsers that are on Microsoft servers, on June 30, be turned off.

The media encodertool Expression Encoder 4 Pro will continue until the end of this year to purchase, while there is also a limited free version is available. Expression Blend, a tool to interfaces using xaml language, no longer under the Expression umbrella and is available as an optional package for Visual Studio 2012. Finally, will Microsoft Expression Studio 4 Ultimate and Web Professional-bundles no longer sell.

With the removal of the packages in the Expression suite, aimed Microsoft are attention primarily on the further development of Visual Studio 2012. The various additional tools for this development environment would also be web designers, partly, to operate. Further, the greater emphasis is put on tools for building mobile applications. The upcoming Update 2 for Visual Studio 2012 should contribute to this.