Visual Studio "Orcas" and .NET FX 3.5 Beta1 shipped!

Today we signed off on the Beta 1 release for Visual Studio “Orcas” and .NET FX 3.5.

I am very proud of what my team has accomplished and want to take this opportunity to thank them for the great work they have done – in terms of innovation, new scenarios that we are enabling through a set of rich features and a high focus on quality through the project. Between support for the latest platforms including Windows Vista, Office 2007, Longhorn Server and the Web, significant improvements in developer productivity and taking the next step forward in our Application Lifecycle Tools journey with VSTS and TFS, I know we have got an awesome product in the making.

The VS Pro and VSTS products are at Beta1. As part of this we are also putting out CTPs (Community Technology Previews) of the Express SKUs as this is the first time that we are making Express products for “Orcas” available to our customers.

To date, we have seen over a quarter of a million downloads of the various Orcas CTPs which is a testimony to both your excitement for this product and effective feedback we are consistently receiving from you all. This is really ensuring to help us build the right product for you and our many customers.

Orcas Beta 1 bits for the various different product SKUs will be available at the MSDN Visual Studio Futures site over the next day or so. The team and I are looking forward to hearing your feedback on Beta1.

Namaste!