Microsoft Says it Will Ship Visual Studio 2008 This Month
Microsoft has committed to releasing Visual Studio 2008 and its .Net Framework 3.5 technology by the end of this month.

Microsoft Corp. on Monday committed to releasing Visual Studio 2008 and its .Net Framework 3.5 technology by the end of this month.

Soma Somasegar, corporate vice president of Microsoft's developer division, made the announcement at the company's TechEd Developers 2007 conference in Barcelona, Spain. He also announced a Community Technology Preview (CTP) release of a new tool that developers will be able to use to enable collaboration and offline capabilities for any applications.

Although the Web has changed what users expect in terms of interaction with desktop and Internet applications, companies have been challenged to build "richer, more connected applications and services" that could help them boost productivity and increase revenue, Somasegar said in a statement. He added that Visual Studio 2008 and .Net Framework 3.5 will let developers use their existing skills to build more "compelling" applications for end users.

Visual Studio 2008 is focused on enabling developers to create what Microsoft calls "smart client" applications that offer the same kind of rich user experiences that are prevalent on the Web. The new tool set can be used to develop applications for Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Office 2007 and the Web, the software vendor said.