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Microsoft Syncs Server OS, Development Tools

It's all about timing. Microsoft formally synchronized the release of the next version of Visual Studio .NET and the .NET Framework with Windows .NET Server.

Microsoft first shipped Visual Studio .NET and the .NET Framework in February of 2002. The timing meant the framework had to be individually loaded onto Windows 2000 servers and Windows 2000 Professional and Windows XP desktops for those operating systems to run .NET applications.

Microsoft plans to finalize the Windows .NET Server code by the end of this year, and the company had informally disclosed plans to release new versions of Visual Studio .NET, code-named "Everett," and the next version of the .NET Framework around the same time.

Eric Rudder, senior vice president of the Developer and Platform Evangelism Division at Microsoft, made it official Thursday that the releases would be synchronized.

Windows .NET Server was supposed to include the .NET Framework. The synchronization decision will avoid the confusion of having a new operating system with an old version of the framework that would need to be updated almost immediately.

Microsoft describes the "Everett" version of Visual Studio as an incremental release. It will include the Visual J# .NET development language, which was released several months after Visual Studio .NET began shipping. Visual Studio .NET has been shipping with Visual J# .NET in the box since last month.

Another synchronization in the Everett release will be the inclusion of the .NET Compact Framework and Smart Device Extensions, which also came out after the February Visual Studio .NET release.

About the Author

Scott Bekker is editor in chief of Redmond Channel Partner magazine.

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