Microsoft Lays Out Visual Studio 2005 Product Line and Unveils Latest Data on Rise of .NET as Premier Enterprise Solution, Signaling Wave of Opportunities for Corporate Developers and Partners in Visual Studio 2005 Time Frame.
Microsoft today announced Visual Studio 2005 Standard Edition, a flexible development tool for line-of-business application developers building Windows, Web or mobile applications. During his keynote address at Fawcette Technical Publications’ VSLive! Orlando, Microsoft Developer Division Corporate Vice President S. Somasegar explained how the full Visual Studio 2005 product line – including the Visual Studio 2005 Express products, Visual Studio 2005 Standard Edition, Visual Studio 2005 Professional Edition and Visual Studio 2005 Team System – meets the needs of developers of all levels. The keynote speech and announcements made at the show underscored the fact that .NET developers are realizing enormous return on Visual Studio and the .NET Framework today, and are positioned to lead the industry forward in the Visual Studio 2005 time frame.
“With Visual Studio 2005, Microsoft’s goal was to move away from the idea that one tool fits all developer needs,” Somasegar said. “Recent third-party studies prove the increased performance, scalability, reliability and developer productivity benefits of Visual Studio and the .NET Framework. Microsoft is taking steps with Visual Studio 2005 to make this even more compelling for a wide range of users.”
Visual Studio 2005 Standard Edition offers occasional developers working in small organizations a development tool that maintains the simplicity of the Visual Studio Express products but delivers access to richer features for building robust, data-driven Smart Client and Web applications. Developers using Visual Basic 6.0 will find that Visual Studio 2005 Standard Edition helps ease migration to the .NET Framework by combining the productivity enhancements of Visual Basic 2005 with the power required for constructing line-of-business applications. Further, Visual Studio 2005 Standard Edition offers Web developers a highly productive environment for quickly building and deploying Web sites and Web services.
Microsoft Partners Help Smooth Migration to Visual Studio 2005
In addition to using Visual Studio 2005 Standard Edition, Visual Basic and Web developers can take advantage of tools from members of the Microsoft Visual Studio Industry Partners (VSIP) program. Compuware DevPartner Studio enables organizations to migrate their existing software to and enjoy the numerous benefits of the .NET Framework, including better support for building security-enhanced, reliable Windows and Web applications.
“Compuware continues to deliver developer productivity solutions that take advantage of Visual Studio’s extensibility. We’re proud that our software and services support the flourishing .NET ecosystem,” said Paul Czarnik, vice president for technology architecture at Compuware Corp. “DevPartner Studio, which helps developers improve application quality and performance, seamlessly supports analysis of a mixture of Visual Basic 6.0, Visual Basic .NET and other Microsoft technologies — a tremendous value to enterprise customers during migration. Our support signifies the value we place on Microsoft .NET and its ability to dramatically increase developer productivity.”
Moreover, Visual Studio 2005 Standard Edition includes support for the add-in tools and components developed by the more than 200 VSIP program members to extend the development environment.
“Since its inception in 1998, the Component Vendor Consortium has worked with Microsoft developers and seen firsthand the return on investment that they get from building applications for the .NET Framework,” said Rich Little, chairman of the Component Vendor Consortium. “With today’s announcement of Visual Studio 2005 Standard Edition, Microsoft has created new opportunities for Visual Basic 6.0 developers and the controls vendors who were a part of that community.”
Microsoft Provides Refresh of Visual Studio 2005 Beta
Microsoft also announced at the show availability of the Visual Studio 2005 Beta 1 Refresh to MSDN(R) subscribers and attendees of VSLive! Orlando. This version of Beta 1 includes Visual Studio 2005 Team Foundation, providing enterprise developers with robust and integrated change-management tools to foster better collaboration and version control.
Microsoft encourages beta testers to continue using the MSDN Product Feedback Center to make suggestions, track known issues and interact directly with the Visual Studio 2005 development team. In addition, more than 360,000 beta versions of the Visual Studio Express products have been downloaded since they were made available in June.
Finally, Microsoft announced Visual Studio .NET 2003 Special Edition. This new suite of products includes Visual Studio .NET 2003, Windows Server 2003 Developer Edition and SQL Server 2000 Developer Edition. Altogether, the suite provides developers with the tools they need to build and test dynamic, data-driven ASP.NET Web applications and Visual Basic applications.
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