Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Announcements

Microsoft has a slew of announcements for developers today in addition to all of the SharePoint news. Steve Ballmer mentioned the availablity of Visual Studio Beta 2 in his keynote at the SharePoint conference, but there's more! Now we know when Visual Studio 2010 and .NET 4.0 will hit the street!Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4 Beta 2 availability – Available to MSDN subscribers today! General availability will follow on October 21st.  To download the beta, visit http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/default.aspx. Launch date for Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4 – The official launch will take place on March 22nd, 2010.Visual Studio 2010 packaging and licensing details – Microsoft is announcing a new, streamlined packaging lineup and licensing options for Visual Studio 2010 and MSDN.  This includes an “Ultimate Offer” to help customers upgrade to the latest developer tools.  For more information on the new packaging and licensing of Visual Studio 2010, visit http://Microsoft.com/VisualStudio.MSDN redesign; Microsoft’s premier developer network – Microsoft unveils an improved MSDN, which includes new benefits for all MSDN subscribers.  Visit MSDN.