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Microsoft Announces Visual Studio 2005 Beta 2 and SQL Server 2005 April CTP

I recently got the following announcement from my contact at Microsoft:

Today, Microsoft announced the availability of Visual Studio 2005 Beta 2, .NET Framework 2.0 Beta 2 and SQL Server 2005 April CTP (Community Technology Preview), the latest major milestone in delivering the next generation products. Together, SQL Server 2005 and Visual Studio 2005 will provide a tightly integrated developer and data management platform, enabling customers to make the most out of existing skills and familiar tools, while harnessing data in powerful new ways that increase productivity and efficiency. Microsoft also announced the Microsoft Go-Live license program for customers interested in deploying Visual Studio 2005 and SQL Server 2005 Express Edition applications into production immediately. For the first time, the Go-Live License will permit the deployment of not only ASP.NET Web applications, but also Windows Forms, Visual Studio Tools For Office-based applications, and .NET Compact Framework applications. For more information, you can visit http://msdn.microsoft.com/vs2005/golive.

To date, there have been over 400,000 downloads of the SQL Server 2005 CTPs and the team has received better than expected feedback. Based on this success, Microsoft has decided to adopt CTPs for the remainder of the SQL Server 2005 development cycle. Because the SQL Server 2005 April CTP is feature complete and can be used with Visual Studio 2005 Beta 2, Microsoft is encouraging customers and partners to start testing against this version. Already, seven customers have put SQL Server 2005 CTPs into production and their initial experience indicates notable performance, management and productivity gains over SQL Server 2000. Customers interested in putting SQL Server 2005 CTPs into their production can nominate themselves to the Technology Adoption Program (TAP) by completing the form available at www.microsoft.com/sql.

To assist customers in these product roll outs, Microsoft Learning will offer training opportunities such as vouchers for free Microsoft E-Learning and discounted exams. Various third party training and consulting firms have also announced plans to help customers prepare for these product roll outs.

Please go to the Microsoft virtual press room to view the press release and additional materials: http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/events/vs-sql/default.asp.

In addition to those included above, you may also find the following links helpful:

• Visual Studio 2005 Home Page
• Get Visual Studio 2005 Beta 2 - It's a free download for MSDN subscribers and available to others for a small fee (this was also free when I tried it)
• Microsoft Announces Pricing & Licensing for Visual Studio 2005
• Visual Web Developer 2005 Express Edition Beta 2 - The lightweight product for those of you that just want to build web sites.