Since Michael Earls and I both work in the same area, and since Michael is currently on the bench (for those who are not used to “consultant-speak”, “on the bench” is the same thing as not working.  Well, not working directly for a client, that is) we decided to get together for lunch.  We sat there talking about all kinds of stuff, most of which doesn’t belong in a blog.  One thing he said to me did strike me as pertinent to the rest of the .Net community and it ties in nicely with something that I wanted to bring up anyway.

Whidbey Beta 2 is expected to be released soon!  The Release team says that they are in the Ask phase of the release – the final stage before the release.  This is significant, because the news on the net is that the Beta 2 will include a GoLive license.  This means that anything you develop with Whidbey Beta 2 will be supported by Microsoft!  The tools might not be 100%, but the Framework is finished!  Speculation puts the release of Beta 2 at the end of March.  This means that you can finally develop real applications with .Net 2.0!

Significant among the .Net 2.0 changes are the new things that are available for use in ASP.Net applications.  Imagine developing an entire membership driven website, complete with user database, in just 20 minutes!  Master Pages and Generics!  All kinds of cool stuff are right around the corner.  How do you find out more about ASP.Net 2.0?  How about a great book written by Dino Esposito?  This is the book that the Atlanta .Net Book Club will be focusing on for the next two months.  Did I mention that we might even have some copies of this book to give away to people who show up to the book club meeting?  The next meeting of the book club is on March 17th.

— Matt Ranlett