Visual STudio 2008 / .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 BETA now Available

For those of you looking for it, ScottGu published a blog post earlier today announcing the BETA release of VS08/.NET 3.5 SP1.  There are a ton of bug fixes, updates and improvements to Web Development (including ASP.NET Dynamic Data), Visual Studio (features and performance updates), Client Development, Setup Projects, Windows Forms, WPF (performance, debugging, and data improvements as well as new features), WCF updates, and data updates including the Entity Framework, LINQ to Entities.

WHEW!

This is a major update for VS08 and .NET 3.5, and if you’re interested in seeing some of the benefits today, you can download the SP1 BETA here.  Remember – this is a BETA release.  The RTW bits for .NET 3.5 and VS08 SP1 are planned for release later this summer.  As with many other BETA releases, there are some gotchas in terms of installation – please read ScottGu’s blog post before installing this BETA update to make sure you know about the installation requirements and all the potential gotchas.

Here are some other links to give you more information about this release:

• Scott Guthrie:  http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2008/05/12/visual-studio-2008-and-net-framework-3-5-service-pack-1-beta.aspx
• Brad Abrams: http://blogs.msdn.com/brada/archive/2008/05/05/visual-studio-2008-and-net-framework-3-5-sp1-beta.aspx
• Tim Sneath: http://blogs.msdn.com/tims/archive/2008/05/12/introducing-the-third-major-release-of-windows-presentation-foundation.aspx