Republished with Permission - Original Article

I’m happy to announce that today we shipped the Beta 2 release of Visual Studio 2010 and .NET 4.0.  You can download it now. 

VS 2010 and .NET 4 bring a huge number of improvements and additions. They include big advances for ASP.NET web development, WPF and WinForms client development, SharePoint development, Silverlight development, data development, parallel computing development, and cloud computing development.  VS 2010 also delivers a ton of improvements in the core IDE, code editors, programming languages, and enterprise design, architect, and testing tools. 

TFS 2010 is now easy to install (only 20 minutes to setup source control, bug and work item tracking, build automation, and continuous integration), can be installed on both servers as well as client OS and domain controller machines, and is now included with all MSDN subscriptions of Visual Studio.

Figure 1

 

I’ve started a series of blog posts that will cover some of the improvements and feature additions in VS 2010 and .NET 4.  Stay tuned to my blog as I post many, many more posts over the coming months.

With VS 2010 we are simplifying the product lineup and pricing options of Visual Studio, as well as adding new benefits for MSDN subscribers.  With VS 2010 we will now ship a simpler set of SKU options:

Visual Studio Express: Free Express SKUs for Web, VB, C#, and C++

Visual Studio 2010 Professional with MSDN: Professional development tools as you are used to today with the addition of source control integration, bug tracking, build automation, and more. It also includes 50 hours/month of Azure cloud computing.

Visual Studio 2010 Premium with MSDN: Premium has everything in Professional plus advanced development tools (including richer profiling and debugging, code coverage, code analysis and testing prioritization), advanced database support, UI testing, and more.  Rather than buying multiple “Team” SKUs like you would with VS 2008, you can now get this combination of features in one box with VS 2010. It also includes 100 hours/month of Azure cloud computing.

Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate with MSDN: Ultimate has everything in Premium plus additional advanced features for developers, testers, and architects including features like Intellitrace (formerly Historical Debugging), the new architecture tools (UML, discovery), test lab management, etc.  It also includes 250 hours/month of Azure cloud computing.

VS 2010 and .NET 4.0 can be installed side-by-side on the same machine as VS 2008 and .NET 3.5.  You can install the Beta 2 version on a machine and it will not impact your existing VS 2008 / .NET 3.5 development.

.NET 4 and VS 2010 Beta 2 include a "go-live" license which means you can start using the products for production projects. 

VS 2010 and .NET 4.0 deliver some significant new capabilities and improvements. The goal with today’s Beta 2 release was to work hard on performance, stability, and the integration of the overall feature set.  The team’s focus is now transitioning to getting your feedback on the product and preparing for the final release candidate (RC) milestone.  Please send us any feedback you have on the Beta 2 release.

Scott Guthrie

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