\<a href="http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/default.aspx"" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Visual Studio 2008 has shipped.
This is a very compelling upgrade, primarily because of Language-Integrated Query (LINQ), a new feature that is supported in the mainstream .NET languages VB and C# and will almost certainly spread to every .NET language and, I suspect, into the Java world in a few years.
Most readers of this blog will be familiar with LINQ. If not, you might find my latest column for SD Times, LINQ Clicks, useful.