Community Server on my mind

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Add-ons vs add-ins, what's the difference?

I read the following from The Visual Basic Team's Blog today.

The beta release of Visual Studio Tools for the 2007 Microsoft Office System (VSTO 2005 SE) was announced today. VSTO 2005 SE is a free add-on for Visual Studio (Professional or above) that enables you to create add-ins for the most popular Office 2007 and Office 2003 applications. You can get VSTO 2005 SE Beta here.

This made me wonder, what is the difference between an add-on and an add-in? If there even is a difference. I have thought about it before, but can't remember having seen both words used in the same article before, which indicates that there would be some difference between the two. So who cares, right? Yeah, I know it's not exactly the most important issue in life. But I am honestly interested, being a non-native tongue to the English language (if one could say so).

In the article referenced above, it seems like an add-on is something you add upon a product to add more feature to it, and an add-in, in this case, is something you add into (in this case Office 2007) to add features to it. But that reasoning doesn't hold for long. :-)

What's your opinion/knowledge about these words, is there a difference, or should I just not care and go on with my life (or maybe get a life Wink?

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Posted: Saturday, September 16, 2006 10:00 AM by J-O Eriksson
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Comments

Dave Burke said:

I'll let smarter minds than I decide the fate of add-on verses add-ins, but a simple life rule is if it says "Add-On" on the Community Server docs page, then that's the end of it.

Seriously, that is pretty wild to see both in the same sentence.  I've thought about this often myself, and I know I'm not alone!

# September 18, 2006 11:57 AM

Community Server Daily News said:

news of the day a grab bag for what's happening in Community Server Anyone whose been part of the Community
# September 18, 2006 2:02 PM

Community Server Daily News said:

news of the day a grab bag for what's happening in Community Server Anyone whose been part of the Community

# September 18, 2006 2:05 PM
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