Mr. Anonymous – You’re missing the point. We’re not complaining that it’s difficult for us to get software.
We’re saying that Microsoft makes it too difficult for “civilians” – non-developers – to play with their software developer tools.

All of us got started with computers that shipped BASIC at the commandline. Turning on the computer and typing “10 PRINT “Hello World” was a pretty welcoming environment for us as budding young nerds who wanted to play with computers.

Fast-forward 25 years and things have regrettably gotten more difficult. If little Jimmy down the street wants to play with computers, he needs to (1) somehow know there’s a Visual Studio Express product (2) figure out where to get it (3) download it over his slow internet connection (4) install it (5) if he’s made it this far, play. That amount of friction is just plain silly.

And please don’t mention csc.exe. Maybe a REPL style C# console might work, but csc.exe is not at all what I’m talking about.