Guy Barrette

Forrester Research recently surveyed 878 IT decision-makers at North American enterprises. Forty-eight percent represent enterprises with 1,000 to 4,999 employees, and 52 percent represent companies with 5,000 or more employees. On average, these enterprises increased their IT budgets by 2.4 percent over 2003, up from the average of 1.7 percent growth projected for 2004 at the end of 2003. This research determined that Microsoft .NET has the edge when it comes to choosing a development platform. In interviewing these enterprise software decision-makers, Forrester found that 56 percent were using .NET as their development platform.

Visual Studio .NET Professional 2003 Special Edition is a limited time offer from Microsoft.  It includes VS .NET Pro + Windows Server 2003 + SQL Server 2000 Dev edition + the Office Tools for VS + a set a 4 MCAD/MCSD books + a voucher good for 50% off the price of an exam.  All this for $749US or $549US for an upgrade.

Looks like the .NET Framework 1.1 SP1 introduce a problem with the validation controls.

Through September and October, Canadian .NET User Groups are hosting meetings with Microsoft Developer Specialists. You're invite to come and learn more about Building Mobile Applications using the .NET Compact Framework and SQL CE.

Yesterday, Ken Spencer gave a great talk at the Montreal Visual Studio user group.  He his speaking again tonight, this time at the .NET Architects UG.  If you're in town, don't miss it !

If you're already developing on ASP.NET 2.0 Beta 1, be sure to check this article that describe a few feature changes that may affect you.

New service packs for the .NET Framework are available for download right now.