I'm delighted to pass on the announcement that Visual Studio 2008 (and the .NET Framework 3.5) releases to manufacturing (RTMs) today!

For those of you lucky enough to have MSDN subscriptions - you should be able to download it immediately from your MSDN subscription centre. More details of the release are included below and here.

For those of you who don't - you might like to get on the local Visual Studio 2008 pre-release program - if you sign up we'll send you an eval hardcopy of the RTM version as soon as it gets to us (estimated after Xmas by the time they get manufactured and shipped to us). We'll send you out the beta version in the mean time to keep you entertained... You can place your order at: www.microsoft.ie/vs2008. Note that this offer (of the DVD mail out) is only available to folks from Ireland and Northern Ireland (one per person until stocks last). 

Of course, if your bandwidth allows, you can check out the latest eval versions on the MSDN site. There are also links to the free Express editions of Visual Studio 2008. However, the Team Suite eval comes in at just under 4G (helpfully estimated at over 159 hours to download over dial-up! ;)

Here are some details about the release:

Today,  Visual Studio 2008 and the .NET Framework 3.5 releases to manufacturing (RTMs) which means that the English version of the product is immediately available to MSDN subscribers. 

Visual Studio 2008 is the next generation of Microsoft’s award-winning development tools and focuses on enabling rapid application development, enhancing collaboration among development teams, and providing development tools support for the latest platforms.  For the first time, developers have full tools support for Windows Vista, the 2007 Microsoft Office system and the .NET Framework 3.5.  The release of Visual Studio 2008 is the first release of the 2008 launch wave that also includes Windows Server and SQL Server.

Details

Visual Studio 2008 enables customers to rapidly create connected applications on the latest platforms, including Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008, the 2007 Office System, and the Web with the highest quality user experience for the each member of the development teams as well as the end user.

Visual Studio 2008 provides over 200 new features, including…

• Productivity: Improved language and data features that help developers gain greater productivity in creating modern software
• Collaboration: Expanded and improved offerings for software development teams, including tools for database professionals and greater collaboration between development organizations and graphic designers
• Platforms: Tools that speed creation of software and services on the latest platforms, including the Web, Windows Vista, Office 2007, and Windows Server 2008

The .NET Framework 3.5, based on proven technology, adds new features in several major technology areas including:

·         Deep integration of Language Integrated Query (LINQ) and data awareness throughout the runtime, compiler, and class libraries. This new feature will let code written in LINQ-enabled languages to filter, enumerate, and create projections of several types of collections using the same syntax.

·         Integrated support for Web 2.0 AJAX style applications and services in ASP.NET and Windows Communication Foundation. Providing customers with direct support of REST/POX and JSON support within in their ASP.NET applications.

·         New workflow-enabled services technology provides customers with improved and long-running services by adding new Windows Workflow Foundation and Windows Communication Foundation tools to simplify building workflow-enabled services.

·         Additions to the base class library (BCL) to address some of the most common customer needs, including integration with Event Tracking for Windows and new add in hosting model for extensibility.