Visual Studio 2010/2008/2005 Myth Busting Matrix

Taking advantage of Microsoft’s development platform and tools will soon enough mean that developers will need to choose between either running older releases or jumping to the next generation of products offered by the company. In this regard, Microsoft wants undecided customers to take an informed decision when it comes down to sticking with Visual Studio 2005 or Visual Studio 2008 or making the jump to Visual Studio 2010. This is why the software giant has produced the Visual Studio 'Myth Busting Matrix,' in an effort to clarify problematic aspects of each edition of VS.

Available via MSDN, the Visual Studio 'Myth Busting Matrix' is a Silverlight app designed to allow customers to easily access information on the features of Visual Studio 2010, 2008 and 2005, as well as clarifications on false limitations associated with the three versions of VS. “Our Visual Studio 'Myth Busting Matrix' reveals the benefits of upgrading and helps dispel some widely held myths. Browse all three versions of Visual Studio by your area(s) of interest and click the myths for more information,” the description of the project reveals.

“Visual Studio 2010 and .NET 4 is currently in Beta,” reads the overview for VS2010. “it includes many new features for Web, Rich Client and Data as well as significant improvements to Visual basic and C#. It also includes a new programming language F# and great support for Windows 7, SharePoint and Office.”

As far as Visual Studio 2010 is concerned, in the Overview section, Microsoft looks to dispel the following myths: “Visual Studio 2008 is perfectly fine for what I do;” “Visual Studio 2010 can only target the .NET Framework 4;” and “Visual Studio 2010 cannot be installed alongside older versions of Visual Studio.”

Early adopters are free to download the Beta 2 development milestones for both Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4 and start testing the releases. In February 2010, Microsoft plans to offer testers the Release Candidate build of VS2010 and .NET 4.

.NET Framework 4 Beta 2 is available for download here.

Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Professional Beta 2 and Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate Beta 2 are available for download via this link.