Today at REMiX '08 Sydney (Also see VisitMIX) along with a good show and a grand feed, attendees also got a copy of Expression Studio 2.  After seeing it in action I'm quite looking forward to taking it around the block.  I never quite got into [Macromedia|Adobe]Flash, and am quietly hoping Silverlight can find a spot next to it in the web ecosystem.

First thing I did when I got home was install Expression Studio, I got a little curious to find that there is a Visual Studio 2008 Standard disk in the box.  It got me to wonder what really is the difference between VS Pro which I am using at the moment and VS Standard?

I can't remember the product comparison pages for any version of Visual Studio on MSDN ever being completely illuminating.  The 2008 version is about as good as it gets it seems. 

The one that I am most interested in somehow is down the end of the list:  the inclusion of the Unit Testing features in VSPro 2008, when it was only included in Team System versions of VS 2005.  Here is a slightly abridged summary of the other features included in VS Professional that you do not get in VS Standard:

Debugging Tools:

• Attach to Remote Process
• SQL-CLR Debugging
• XSLT Debugger
• T-SQL Debugging

Data Tools:

• Database Projects
• SQL Server Projects
• Server Explorer

Reporting:

• Crystal Reports Application & Crystal Reports for Visual Studio

Office development:

• VSTO for Office 2003 and Office 2007
• Sharepoint 2007 State Machine workflow template
  

Smart Device Development:

• Device Emulator
• Project Templates
• Debugging Tools

...but surely this can't be it?

It's not.  Well, this is the story if you are comparing VS Pro and VS Standard alone, but there is one other thing to consider:

1. In my timezone, the full boxed retail VS Standard is less than half the price of the equiv. VS Professional... but;
   
2. You can't get an MSDN Subscription including VS Standard.  They are only available with Professional and above, and imho the licensing benefits of MSDN for developers is well worth the look.
   

So there you have it.  If an MSDN Subscription is on your radar, enjoy using VS Pro.  If it is not, and you can live without the above listed features, well maybe there is no need to spend more than you have to.