Visual Studio 2005 Beta 1 to drop on Tech.Ed Europe 2004
Last thing a broader public saw of Visual Studio 2005 ("Whidbey") was the Community Technology Preview in May. No official beta announcement on Tech.Ed 2004 in San Diego, CA (USA) by the end of May, as Jim Minatel noted on FTPOnline.
Now with Tech.Ed Europe 2004 beginning this Tuesday in Amsterdam, Netherlands, Microsoft will come up with the first official Beta bits (Beta 1), according to an eWeek report by Mary Jo Foley. This should make it as a keynote topic, so expect the announcement on Tuesday. The beta bits could be downloadable from MSDN Subscriber Downloads shortly afterwards.
Also, Microsoft will announce a Visual Studio 2005 product line directed at hobbyists and students (took them quite a while) consisting of a couple of appropriately downscaled products: Visual Web Developer 2005 Express Edition (for building dynamic web sites and web services), Visual Basic 2005 Express Edition, Visual C# 2005 Express Edition, Visual C++ 2005 Express Edition and Visual J# 2005 Express Edition. Finally, there will be a SQL Server 2005 Express Edition.