I just received an email from PreEmptive, the makers of DotFuscator. This is the obfuscation tool that has a “lite” version embedded into Visual Studio. Their email pointed me to a survey they are doing and based on the questions, I wonder if they are not seeing a lot of Visual Studio users upgrading to the Developer or Pro editions and they are trying to figure out why.

I *know* that obfuscation is  another level of security that we can all leverage. I *know* Microsoft has made it really easy by putting this “lite” (Community Edition) version into Visual Studio.NET. So, raising my hand, yet again as a typical developer – writing custom corporate applications that are not being put out in the market place – why have I never touched  it, used it, thought about it? I have even listened with fascination, as Brent Rector talked about obfuscation on DotNetRocks (his company, Wise Owl, also has an obfuscation tool called Demeanor).

I know with the many many things we are learning all of the time about .NET, for me at least, this is one of those items that is “on my list”. It just hasn’t bubbled to the top yet.

Update: is this about opensource (or lack thereof)? Not in my mind, but since James thinks so (my interpretation), I thought I’d point to his post about this post. 

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