Scott Guthrie, General Manager of .NET Development Platform, today announced the "Atlas" v1.0 official naming and product release plan via his blog.  You can review the specifics by reading Scott's post.  In summary:

Official Naming

  • Microsoft AJAX Library:  The client-side Javascript library (i.e., all the .js files) that works with any browser and also supports any server-side framework, not just ASP.NET.
  • ASP.NET 2.0 AJAX Extensions: The server-side functionality that seamlessly integrates with ASP.NET and uses the same programming model familiar to existing ASP.NET developers.
  • ASP.NET AJAX Control Toolkit: The set of free, shared source controls and components that currently form the "Atlas" Control Toolkit community project hosted on CodePlex.
  • Microsoft ASP.NET AJAX = Microsoft AJAX Library + ASP.NET 2.0 AJAX Extensions.

Release Plan

  • We are releasing a fully-supported version of the Microsoft AJAX components that works on top of ASP.NET 2.0 and Visual Studio 2005 by the end of this calendar year.  The plan is to first release a Beta, then a Release Candidate (RC), then finalize the final release date based on customer feedback.
  • Improved tools support will be delivered with the "Orcas" release of Visual Studio and you can expect to be able to preview the new tool capabilities in future VS "Orcas" Community Technology Previews (CTPs).
  • Microsoft AJAX CTPs will continue throughout the Visual Studio "Orcas" product cycle as a way to incorporate partner & customer feedback into the development process.  These CTPs will continue to have Go-Live licenses as they have had since March 2006.
  • A whitepaper detailing the v1.0 feature list and anticipated product changes will be published in the next few weeks.

I encourage you to provide feedback on the roadmap and naming either by posting comments here or any of the other "Atlas" team blogs.  Feel free to contact me directly if you prefer.