Entity Framework and Orcas Team Suite June 2007 CTPs

Microsoft just announced availability of the Microsoft Visual Studio Code Name "Orcas" Team Suite June 2007 Community Technology Preview (CTP) virtual hard disk (VHD) for Virtual PC 2007 and Virtual Server 2005 R2, which I'm currently downloading.

The Visual Studio Code Name "Orcas" June 2007 Community Technology Preview (CTP) Readme has a link to an Express Editions Readme, so it's probably safe to assume that the Visual Web Developer Express June 2007 CTP download for the Entity Framework June 2007 CTP is a member of this update wave. The Readmes provide no information on new features.

There was only one Microsoft blog post about the SDK drop as of Sunday morning. It was a Friday morning post from the Microsoft UK Developer Tools Team, which was subsequently deleted (but it's cached). Reports of the CTP's availability have come from the UK and Europe primarily.

Update 7/10/2007: The Microsoft UK post reappeared this morning with the following caveat:

The Product Group have released an newer version of Visual Studio, but they aren't releasing it as a CTP. It is aimed at fixing a couple of problems for some targeted customers. The reality of this isn't tested or up to the quality of a proper CTP. You can still use this download, but it has some problems and it isn't supported for TFS. I would recommend waiting until Beta 2. Sorry for any confusion I have caused. [Spelling corrected.]

If the download page says it's a CTP and the four Readmes say it's a CTP, they released it as a CTP.

Tamir Khason of Microsoft Israel posted Orcas June CTP for limited beta is available on July 4, 2007 with this announcement:

After releasing June CTP of .NET framework 3.5, June CTP bits of Visual Studio 2008 (Team Suite and Visual Web Developer) are also ready for limited beta as Layout or VPC image.

and invited readers to contact him for downloading details.

I intend to test the EF June 2007 CTP with WinForms as soon as I get the VHD installed. I've also posted a message in the ADO.NET vNext forum concerning compatibility of the EF drop with the Team Suite and VB/C# Express versions. I'll update this post as I learn more about compatibility.

I've also posted requests for lists of new and improved features, bug fixes, and (for Visual Basic) promised features dropped from Orcas in the LINQ Project General and Visual Basic Orcas forums.

There also is a Microsoft Visual Studio Code Name "Orcas" SDK - June 2007 Community Technology Preview download (127.5 MB) available but it's date is 6/1/2007 and appears to be dedicated to Orcas Beta 1.

Technorati tags: Orcas June 2007 CTP, Entity Framework June 2007 CTP, Entity Framework, Entity Data Platform, Entity Data Model, Entity SQL, LINQ to Entities, LINQ