v1.0 RTM

Yeah, it is for real!

Today the product team has officially signed off on v1.0 of "Visual Studio Team Edition for Database Professionals". Build x251 is released to manufacturing (RTM).

It was Euan Garden who started talking about the need for a product like this in November 2004; this is when the "DataDude" was first conceived. In April of 2005 the project was funded and the team was established in July of 2005 by hiring Cameron Skinner as the Product Unit Manager for this product. In November of 2005 we reach critical mass and effectively January 1st of 2006 we started building on what is now known as "DataDude v1.0".

It truly feels great to build a product from incubation to release within a year! 10358 check-ins; 315 daily builds; 7 CTP's; 19 developers, 14 testers; 4 program managers; 3 managers and one "DataDude" is what it took to get here. It has been a fun ride, but it ain't over, the "DataDude" is far from being done, there are many exciting new things coming your way. So please keep the feedback coming, we have and will continue to incorporate your feedback and requests in to the product, because we build this product only for you!

The product will show-up on the MSDN download site around December 7 or 8th.

On behalf of the complete product unit, I want to thank all of you for the continuous support and feedback that you have been providing and I hope you like the product. The team is going to take some time off and then start working on the next release!

-GertD
"DataDude" Development Manager