14 DAY TRIAL // The final release of Visual Studio 2010 is now less than three months away, but customers embracing the next iteration of the development platform from Microsoft can already access a variety of guidance focused on the successor of VS 2008. Case in point: the Visual Studio 2010 and Team Foundation Server 2010 VM Factory, which is live on the company’s repository for open source projects, CodePlex, since the end of 2009. The VM Factory is actually designed as the community website for the Visual Studio 2010 and Team Foundation Server 2010 virtualization guidance.
“The purpose of this project is to build prescriptive guidance around the virtualization of the Visual Studio 2010 and guidance for full automation of the creation of virtual machines. The goal is to help users with the installation and configuration of virtualized environments with least effort and maximum automation,” reads an excerpt from the content on the VS 2010 VM factory.
All content is offered under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License, making it accessible to all. Free of charge. “This content was created with support from Microsoft Product Group, Microsoft Most Valued Professionals (MVPs) and technical specialists from technology communities around the globe, giving you a real-world view from the field, where the technology has been tested and used,” it is added in the project’s description.
Visual Studio 2010 early adopters will be able to download two packages: Virtualization Guidance and Factory Package and Guidance. At this point in time, Visual Studio 2010 is still available to the public as a Beta 2 release. Come February 2010, Microsoft will add another development milestone, the Release Candidate (RC) of VS 2010. Customers will need to wait two more months before they are able to get their hands on the finalized platform, as Visual Studio 2010 is planned for availability on April 12, 2010.
“Virtualization Guidance [is] focused guidance on creating a Rangers base image manually and introduction of PowerShell scripts to automate many of the configuration tasks. Factory Package and Guidance [is a] reference walk-through documentation on how to install, configure and support a Microsoft internal or an external factory to automate the installation of Team Foundation Server and Visual Studio environments.”