Sync Services for ADO.NET (OCS) CTP Now Available

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Today we launched the public CTP of the Sync Services for ADO.NET.  This is the current name of features we've been referring to as Occasionally Connected Systems (OCS). 

The SQL Server Compact Edition and Sync Platform teams have been working feverishly to get these bits available.  For those following my blog, you know the SQLce team has been busy shipping SQLce 3.1.  The number of requests for the private CTP exceeded our expectations, so for those that didn't receive the private CTP, we apologize, we just didn't have enough bandwidth to support the number of requests. With the public forum, we're now in a better position to support everyone.

Runtime Only
This is a CTP of the runtime experience.  For aprox 2mb, you can download the bits and run them on your Visual Studio / .NET FX 2.0 machine.  The Visual Studio Orcas CTP's will include SQLce 3.5, the sync runtime, along with the Sync Designer.  At this point the Feb CTP of Orcas will be the first public release of the sync designer.  I'll post a screencast of the designer soon.  But realize the Orcas downloads are quite large.  We'd love your feedback on the runtime, and it's just slightly larger than a floppy :)

Packaging
For this release, we're packaging the Sync Services with SQL Server Compact Edition v3.5.  This should not be confused with the recent release of SQL Server Compact Edition 3.1.  SQLce 3.1 and 3.5 are side by side, so installing this CTP should not affect your 3.1 installations.  If it does, we'd certainly like to know.

Some useful links:

Feedback: Please use the Sync Services forum as this is the best way for us to consolidate all the feedback.  Seeing feedback from others, will also help.  The SQLce and Sync product teams will be using this as the channel to gather and respond to feedback.

Thanks, and let the feedback begin,

Steve