Visual Studio 2008 To Ship A Half-Year Early

Microsoft on Friday said it would release this summer the 2008 version of the Visual Studio software development suite, which had been scheduled to ship next year along with major upgrades of Server and SQL Server.

S. "Soma" Somasegar, corporate VP of the Microsoft Developer Division, that the decision to ship Visual Studio 2008 and framework 3.5 beta 2 this year was based on developer feedback.

Kevin Turner, Microsoft chief operating officer, that the three products would be launched Feb. 27 at an event in Los Angeles. Turner said it would be "the biggest single launch we've got in Microsoft in one day."

While the other products would ship as announced, Somasegar said, "We will start the ball rolling with the release of VS2008 and .NET FX 3.5 beta 2 later this summer, and expect more exciting news, reviews, training and resources following this."

For the last several months, Microsoft had been touting a late 2007 release date for Windows Server 2008, formerly known as Longhorn. Despite that, Turner said the new was launching "right on schedule," according to an online transcript of his remarks posted Wednesday by Microsoft.

Moving the Windows Server launch to February could affect the release date for Viridian, key technology in the company's campaign to develop server products that can compete with those from specialists like EMC's VMware unit. Microsoft has previously said it will release Viridian within 180 days of Longhorn.

Among Windows Server 2008's more highly anticipated features are Windows PowerShell, a command line shell with more than 130 management tools and an integrated scripting language; and Internet Information Services 7.0, a built-in that brings together numerous online publishing technologies.

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