Visual Studio Extensions for SharePoint 1.1 Released at ODC
While I am not a big fan of the SharePoint Extensions, especially the 1.0 version. It was announced that the 1.1 version, that has been in CTP for several months, is now released and available for download along with a guide. It looks like they fixed many of the issues with the 1.0 version such as being able to edit the solution manifest and the feature xml, fixed the wierd guid naming of folders in the layouts directory, and faster debugging. These changes are a step in the right direction.
The biggest change in my personal opinion is there is shown clear ownership from someone at Microsoft for the development of the extensions. When 1.0 was released, there seemed to be no clear group that owned them. Were they owned by the SharePoint group or the Visual Studio group? Now it seems they have settled these issues and Alex Malek has ownership.
There still seems to be some major items lacking from the extensions though, the biggest being Visual Studio 2008 support. Microsoft is looking to add support around June, but that certainly doesn't help since Visual Studio 2008 launch is in February.
So, will I use the extensions? Probably not. I will certainly download and go through them to see how they work and pick up any pointers from them. Also, so I can talk about them and see if they viable solution for some clients who may not be hardcore technical. Personally, though I like to be closer to the bones of the code. I like to understand how each item / file works and have full control over them. Plus, I think most developers who have been doing SharePoint development for awhile has their own ways to setup SharePoint projects. There are several other tools that have filled this void such as STSDEV (written by several MVPs).
Here's a link to read the full details on the VSeWSS 1.1 release so you can make your decision. Whichever way you chose though its always nice to have options. :)