Reaching another step on the road to release, Microsoft has shipped the first beta of Orcas and the first Express edition of Orcas. The Express beta is particularly interesting because it hasn’t been available as a community preview edition. You can download the beta either as a standalone install or as a virtual PC image, and Professional and Foundation editions are currently available with Team Studio following on later. The licence for the beta allows you to use it, but not to create production code from it.
The beta doesn’t contain very much that wasn’t in the previous CTP release, but it is more stable and has fewer unfinished areas. Microsoft is aiming for a final version to be released at the end of this year, and is already talking about the next version of Visual Studio Team System, codenamed Rosario, scheduled for release in two years time.
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