.NET Framework 3.0 is completed!

It was alluded to, almost as an aside, during this morning's keynote speech at Tech Ed Europe.  But let's not let today's most impressive bit of Microsoft developer news pass us by:

The .NET Framework 3.0, formerly known as WinFX, has been released and is available for download.  Its components -- the Windows Presentation Foundation, Windows Communications Foundation, Windows Workflow, and Windows Cardspace -- are all active by default in Windows Vista, and can be installed by free download into Windows XP and Windows Server 2003.

This is a major milestone for development on the Microsoft platform. Congratulations to all the product team members who got this out the door.

If you're an end user on Windows XP or Windows Server 2003, don't hesitate to get downloading on the .NET 3.0 community site.  (If you're using Windows Vista, it's installed by default.)

If you're a developer, you'll also want these three (none of which are installed by default on WIndows Vista):

Windows SDK for Windows Vista and .NET Framework 3.0 - if you'll be building .NET Framework 3.0 applications, this is the software development kit that provides documentation, tools, samples, etc.

Visual Studio 2005 Extensions for .NET Framework 3.0 (Windows Workflow Foundation) - this provides Visual Studio 2005 support for building Windows Workflow Foundation applications.

Visual Studio 2005 Extensions for .NET Framework 3.0 (WCF & WPF), November 2006 CTP - adds features to Visual Studio 2005 for building Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) and Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) applications: XAML Intellisense, project templates, and .NET Framework 3.0 SDK documentation integration. This also installs an early version of the visual designer for WPF applications, code named "Cider."