The Community Technology Preview version of the the latest version of Visual Studio has been released. I’ve not been a developer since my first few months out of college so it’s not of great interest to me. But … even us infrastructure types are involved with Visual Studio in some ways. SQL Reporting Services relies on it if you want to create custom reports and we often get involved with application deployments that involve licensing and installing it. The latter is important because as far as I know, it’s either not possible or damned expensive to get Software Assurance for Visual Studio. Why’s this important? Because this "Orcas" version is what Microsoft wants you to use for coding for Vista and Office 2007. I’ve found from personal experience that developers who stay in touch are keen to take advantage of new tools and versions of Office. This may push the deploymenbt of Vista, Office 2007 and Vistal Studio "Orcas" for some organisations, even if on a limited basis.
Here’s an excerpt of what Microsoft has to say:
Visual Studio code name “Orcas” delivers on Microsoft’s vision of smart client applications by enabling developers to rapidly create connected applications that deliver the highest quality rich user experiences. This new version enables any size organization to rapidly create more secure, manageable, and more reliable applications that take advantage of Windows Vista and the 2007 Office System. By building these new types of applications, organizations will find it easier than ever before to capture and analyze information so that they can make effective business decisions.