Microsoft To Unveil Preview 2 Of Visual Studio 2005 Next Week

While Microsoft acknowledged that the release date for the newly named Visual Studio 2005 has slipped until early next year, the software giant also is readying the first beta of Visual Studio 2005 for release at Tech Ed 2004 in May, sources close to the company said. The first alpha preview of Whidbey was handed out at the company's Professional Developer's Conference in Los Angeles last October.

The Preview 2 expected to be distributed at VSLive next week will be far more stable and run smoothly with the beta of Microsoft's next-generation SQL Server 2005 database, formerly known as Yukon, said sources familiar with the plans for the next Visual Studio release.

Microsoft is holding VSLive in concert with two other shows, Avios-SpeechTEK and Mobile Developer Conference (DevCon) 2004, in San Francisco's Moscone Center West next week.

As previously reported by CRN, Microsoft Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates will deliver the VSLive keynote, which attendees of all three shows can attend. Gates is expected to launch Microsoft Speech Server 2004 in his talk, Microsoft previously confirmed.

Speech Server is designed to run on Windows Server 2003 and supports Speech Application Language Tags (SALT), a standard backed by Microsoft. It is designed to run speech-enabled Web applications for telephony-based speech, as well as applications that can, for example, trigger a command in an e-mail client or browser when a voice command is given over the phone.

PAULA ROONEY contributed to this story.</>