So, I've been reading a lot of blogs in the last few days about this and would like to put in my .02c
First off, I'm not going to tell you the SP beta is available since I think everyone on the planet did a great job at that... oh wait I just did as well ;-). Anyway register and get it on Microsoft Connect.
As for Legacy support of .Net and Visual Studio in Vista, I think Microsoft are doing the right thing here. We are moving in the future with a new OS. We have a VS that works with the current .Net version and the next one (until we get full support for Vista and the .Net 3.0 with Orcas). Building software is a hard business, supporting legacy application is a very hard business, supporting massive amount of hardware, software and multiple version of OSes is an almost impossible business. I think sometimes the hardest thing to do is letting go... but not entirely. I am fortunate enough to be working with current and next gen technologies but not everyone is, I understand the pain and very much share it. Is there a way out, well absolutely, use virtual technologies, can't get any cheaper, it's free (VirtualPC, Virtual Server, VMware Server). Microsoft also stated
Install up to four copies of the operating system in virtual machines on top of Windows Vista Enterprise with a single license
So what does that mean, well when you run vista and the free Virtual PC (or Server) that you can "legally" run up to four other copies of Windows virtually. Well then, why not install Windows XP and Visual Studio.NET or 2003 to do legacy development, anyone who knows me will tell you that I push virtualization anytime I can (I'm even giving a talk at the Code Camp, I have a podcast on the subject also here --watch out it's in french --). I think virtualization is super important in our business and is a great way to 'lock down' a customer configuration do develop against. When I do have development to do (which as been sparse lately ;-)) I try as much as I can to do it in a VM multiple reason... I'll blog about this soon.
I think with a new OS you need to take a stand and look into the future... It's not like we won't be able to do it anymore.
I respect the opinions of others on this, this is just my .02c.
Cheers,
ET