As the title says it all.. Miscrosoft is gearing up for biggest releases since Vista. The Visual Studio Family gets an Upgrade - the Visual Studio “Orcas” 2008 is already out on Beta 1. To download the Beta1, check out the following link -http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/aa700831.aspx

and for express versions - http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/future/default.aspx

Well the major upgrades on this family of VS (as far as i know.. will add in more as i come to know)

• Based on .NET Framework 3.5 (get the Beta1 of the framework here - http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=e3715e6f-e123-428b-8a0f-028afb9e0322&displaylang=en. Its still possible to make applications targetting .NET 2.0 or 3.0
• The VS now has support for designing of XAML forms (winforms - WPF) targetting development for Windows Vista 
• no complete support of Silverlight(WPF/E) as of now (is it rite ?)
• improved support for HTML and ASPX pages.
• CSS functionality greatly derived from the Expression Web Suite. - so no need of getting a WYSIWUG editor specially for editing the look and feel of the webpages.
• VS web developer has full support for ATLAS (ASP.NET AJAX) web applications.
• Also included is complete intellisense for Javascript (wich had been missin from the 2005 studio family)
• Ability to store/get data from LINQ sources. LINQ is a new query language which is toatally integrated in .NET 3.5 and aims at making the data access process faster implementing it the first-class method way amd executing richer queries. Rich queries that you could previously only write in SQL or in XQuery, you can now write in the language you work with - C# or VB.NET which can work with any datasource - XML, Relational dB or object dB without a change in the way you query these types.

well differnce between .NET 3.0 and 3.5 - as told by ScottGu – “.NET 3.5 will have a number of new framework library features - including LINQ, new ASP.NET features and controls, built-in ASP.NET AJAX support, new WPF enhancements, and other assorted goodies.”

About Windows Server “Longhorn” 2008 - unofficially its has been completed(check here - ).. cheers to MSFT but still the Beta3 is available for download from this location - http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/audsel.mspx

And lastly SQL Server “Katmai” 2008 - i dont know much on the features but it has mostly to do with the Object Databases - Querying and Analysis. SQL Server 2008 R3 is Available for download Developer Edition (x86 and x64)- https://connect.microsoft.com/SQLServer/content/content.aspx?ContentID=5395
(see right hand section, u need to register and then will be able to download)

 Finally heres a Vista gadget that you can use to keep a track of the no of days remaining for the biggest wave of product launch - http://www.wedsg.com/winclient/vistasidebargadget/download.htm

Welll Having got a chance to beta test for Windows Live Messenger after I got Invitation from Microsoft.

Results……
GooD Part
The interface no doubt is cool.
Offline Messages !!!
Icons for Individual contacts are too big.
Timestamping in conversations.
Nudges from both sides can be blocked.(bug out here)
Colourful Windows for each Contact.
Different Sharing Folders For each Contact.

The Bad Part
The Advertisements are tooo bad.
Icons geting enlarged on hovering quite annoying..have to set unhovering in da options windows.
Tabs (can be blocked).
MSN Plus Doesnt work with this.

BugSS??
The option in
Messages->Allow me to send and receive Nudges
blocks ur Nudges but still allows others to nudge u.

Well i have got yet another invitation for Windows Live mail beta… (its been over a month now)… well. kinda bored of it really .. thrs been so many bugs and knada so much of probs.. but atleast good features also…

Good ones first!!!

• 2 Gb of Storage !!!
• Faster, Faster and Faster…
• Neat inteface…
• Spell Check and Keyboard Shortcuts…. tooo good
• Right Click Enabled for varoious opns –> forwarding, Replying, Deleting
• Drag and Drop

Bad ones>>>

• Theres no option for Deleting more than one mail at one go?? I need to dreag and drop each mail
• Size of mail and mail box not known

Waiting for>>>

• New storage meter
• Keyboard shortcuts to compose, reply, or move e-mail messages
• The ability to change how many messages are displayed in the Message List
• Delete and Move buttons at the bottom of e-mail messages
• The ability to add Mail Beta or MSN Messenger contacts from the Sent Mail Confirmation page
• The ability to navigate to contacts that begin with a certain letter
  Integration of Mail Beta with MSN Messenger
• Custom filters
• Links to other MSN sites and services like MSN Messenger and MSN Spaces
• The ability to add and customize a Signature
• The ability to search within e-mail messages

Look about it here…
http://join.msn.com/mailbeta/features