.NET Framework 3.5 release and available for download

The final bits for 'Orcas' or .NET Framework 3.5 are now available for download! I must say this was a relatively quick, feature packed release for us.

Get it here.

For the Connected Framework team in which I work in, we concentrated on 4 major themes for this release:

*Make WCF into a great platform with support for all common web formats. This includes work we did for ASP.NET AJAX, XML and JSON encoders, syndication support with RSS and ATOM, and first class REST support

*Integrate Workflow and WCF. I must say as one of the folks running our community/customer program within the team right now, I see this as the #1 reason why customers are moving to Orcas. Being able to build services using workflows & make them long running and durable; and exposing workflows as services are both pretty powerful features.

*Finish WS-* work. We completed the standardization process for WS-Security, WS-Reliable Messaging, WS-Transactions and WS-Policy.

*Provide tooling! This was one of the other big customer asks. When we shipped 3.0, we had add on packages for VS (as CTPs) for WCF tooling. With Orcas, this is now release quality and part of VS.

We look forward to adoption of the 3.5 platform!!