The third in the generation of one of the robust development platforms to have ever been developed, .NET Framework 3.0 has been officially released.
What does this mean?
.NET Framework 3.0 is the super version of the code name WinFX. .NET Framework 3.0 doesnt have a separate runtime and it leverages the .NET Framework 2.0 runtime. However, it has certain cool features as below:-
- Windows Presentation Foundation - WPF (Formerly "Avalon")
- Windows Communication Foundation - WCF (Formerly "Indigo")
- Windows Workflow Foundation -WF
- Windows Card Space
While this is a huge leap on user experience and connected systems, it also ensures that there is not a huge transition in the programming model or the design tool like we had with the jump from .NET Framework 1.x versions to .NET Framework 2.0.
Your Visual Studio 2005 would work with these well and in fact all you need to do is to download the Orcas Extensions for Visual Studio 2005 and get going with creating cool applications and connected systems using the above technologies.
A complete list of reference materials, download links and free online trainings is available at .NET Framework Developer Center
Cheers !!!