Last Thursday, I went to a free Microsoft Launch Event for Server 2008, Visual Studio 2008, and SQL Server 2008, called Heroes Happen Here. It was at the Westin Galleria, NOT to be mistaken by the Westin Oaks! Who knew two Westins existed in the Galleria mall? Crazy.
Anyway, I took the developer track and VS2008/.NET 3.5 has a few things I want to dig my hands into:
1. LINQ – Down and dirty querying with a yet clean and refined look. Query almost anything: SQL, XML, DataSets, join on different datasources, forget all the for loops to get what you want…just LINQ it.
2. New features in AJAX with ASP.NET – Supposedly, you don’t have to write ANY JavaScript.
For breakfast and lunch, they hooked us up with some fancy bag that contained everything we needed for the day: water, orange juice, grapes, a sandwich, snickers, muffin, and some other stuff.
There were hands-on-labs, but I didn’t have time to get to them, but they’re here to download.
The main reason I came was to pick up a copy of each of these products, but as an added bonus, I found a copy of Vista Ultimate! I’ve been waiting to upgrade my XP Media Center machine at home.