Roy Osherove

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FinalBuilder is approaching version 4, and still the coolest build tool out there

Roy Osherove
If you haven't heard of FinalBuilder yet, there's no better time than now. Especially with Microsoft's new "If you want a build process, you'll wanna get VSTS" way of doing things. In short, it the most usable and powerful Build engine and process configuration tool I've used, and I'm not the only one loving it. Joel On Software has kind words for it, as does Mike Gunderloy(larkware)
The main things I like about it:
  • The visual way of doing things (since build configuration is not simple - you are actually documenting your company's process of doing things) including changing and updating it. it makes it easier to "get" for newcomers and it's not as scary in first glance, even for really big project (I've used it on a .NET solution with 120 sub projects with success. Wasn't easy, but the fact that it was doable at all and actually maintainable after the fact is very good)
  • They keep updating the product in new and wonderful ways. For example, the current product is in version 3, and version 4 is just around the corner. The have an active customer forum and all questions seem to be answer as fast as possible. Not only that, requests by customers are heard and sometimes features are put in just because some customer came up with a good scenario for them.
  • They have developer blogs. They get it. The blogs talk about what's coming up in version 4 and that's pretty cool.
  • It has tasks that support practically anything you can think of. It's almost like visual programming.
  • It's extensible using .NET so if you want a task that's not there, you can create one pretty easily.
 
The way I see it, the fact that Microsoft has MSBuild and the team build server, they should be at least up to par with the folks from FinalBuilder, and right now that's not the case.
You may wonder why I'm gushing, but that shouldn't surprise you, I've done it before. When I like something, I just like it. No hidden agenda. Yes, I do get review copies of software, including this one. Sometimes they're just this good.