By Don Burnett

After Vista Service Pack 1, some people are wondering what .Net 3.5 brings to the table.. To answer that I have a great FAQ from Chris Swenson, Sr. Strategy Manager, .NET Platform
at Microsoft.. Here without further delay is the FAQ:

"Visual Studio 2008 and the .NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1 (SP1) is not a traditional service pack, which usually consists of bug fixes and performance improvements.  While Microsoft did fix some bugs and dramatically improved performance in several areas (cold start up times for WPF applications were dramatically reduced, etc.), Microsoft listened to customer feedback and decided to introduce several of the most-requested new features into the .NET Framework via a service pack.  Furthermore, with SP1, Microsoft brought Visual Studio 2008 into alignment with the new features in both the .NET Framework and in SQL Server 2008.

During the beta release of SP1 in May 2008, we did not conduct proactive press outreach in order to maintain focus on the current releases. However, with SP1 we had an opportunity to reinforce the value of both Visual Studio 2008 and the .NET Framework 3.5, and highlight the innovations that are included in the service pack.  Because of the complexity of some of the features in SP1, in addition to briefing industry analysts, we held a press tour, briefing several tech reporters on the innovations Microsoft is bringing to market..." 

How does SP1 advances the art of application development?

"The new ADO.NET Entity Framework feature in SP1 offers developers a model-based paradigm and a rich, standards-based framework for creating data-oriented applications shared across multiple applications and platforms. The separation of presentation, data, and business logic used in concert with a single data model will enable developers to spend less time writing plumbing code and more time refining business logic. "

How does SP1 makes data-driven programming easier ?

"SP1 offers developers support for ASP.NET Dynamic Data, which provides a rich scaffolding framework that enables rapid data-driven development. Since ASP.NET takes care of creating the presentation layer, a fully functional Website is output and ready for customization without the developer writing a single line of code. Further, with ADO.NET Data Services, Web developers can create RESTful Web 2.0-style applications that have better server scalability and improved caching support. "

Why is SP1 is the fastest and easiest way to deploy Windows applications ?

"With the .NET Framework Client Profile, a small subset of the Framework that powers client applications, developers can offer their end users a dramatically streamlined and rapid application download experience. In addition, improvements in SP1 result in dramatic reductions in cold start times, allowing developers to serve a broader set of customers with varying hardware profiles. "

Key Advancements

"SP1 contains innovations that dramatically improve the performance of managed desktop applications and enable the creation best-of-breed rich client applications. SP1 offers several dramatic improvements to the common language runtime (CLR), including the ability to generate managed code that dramatically improves both application startup time and end-to-end application execution time, and the ability of managed code to take advantage of the ASLR (Address Space Layout Randomization) security feature in Windows Vista. Additionally, managed applications that are opened from network shares now have the same performance and behavior as native applications running with full trust.  Finally, SP1 offers dramatic improvements for the creation of rich client applications and line of business (LOB) applications using Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF).  In addition to faster startup times and improved performance for bitmap effects, SP1 offers WPF developers DirectX pixel shader support and the new WebBrowser control."

"SP1 enables developers to create a broader set of mission-critical Web Services that are more scalable and easier to build.  SP1 greatly improves the scalability for hosted WCF services and enables the creation of a broader set of WCF-based services with support for RM sessions, Message Contract and Nullable<T> types.  SP1 also improves the process of exposing REST services with WCF, through an expanded UriTemplate syntax and support for the Atom Publishing Protocol, resulting in a simpler and more flexible programming model when building services to support Web 2.0 applications. Finally, improvements to the .NET Framework give developers more control over the way they access their data and services, and offer significant performance gains when working with large WF projects in Visual Studio."

"Visual Studio 2008 SP1 offers developers improved performance, reliability and the ability to take advantage of the innovations made to the .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 and SQL Server 2008. Visual Studio 2008 SP1 delivers key performance improvements and addresses various points of customer feedback, including: better-performing designers for building WPF applications, improved tools for developing AJAX and data-aware applications, and a streamlined Web site deployment experience.  Additionally, Visual Studio 2008 SP1 is better aligned with the innovations in SQL Server 2008, makes the development of occasionally connected applications and spatial (location aware) applications easier, and offers developers additional controls for incorporating business intelligence into applications.  Finally, Visual Studio 2008 SP1 is also better aligned with the innovations made to the .NET Framework 3.5 SP1, including improved designers for working with the ADO.NET Entity Framework, and a richer JavaScript development environment....

"SP1 also builds on the enhancements already introduced in Visual Studio 2008 and the .NET Framework 3.5. Visual Studio 2008, providing a consistent, integrated experience for software development teams, and providing a secure, reliable solution for developing applications for the latest platforms: the Web, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, the 2007 Office system, and beyond...

What do Visual Studio 2008 SP1 and the .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 include?

Visual Studio 2008 SP1 and the .NET Framework SP1 include substantial enhancements. To highlight just a few of the new features:

The .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 delivers:

· Performance increases between 20-45% for WPF-based applications – without having to change any code

· WCF improvements that give developers more control over the way they access data and services.

· Streamlined installation experience for client applications

· Improvements in the area of data platform, such as the ADO.NET Entity Framework, ADO.NET Data Services  and extensive support for SQL Server 2008’s new features.

Visual Studio 2008 SP1 delivers:

· Improved designers for building WPF applications

· Full support for SQL Server 2008 (formerly known as SQL Server Katmai)

· ADO.NET Entity Framework and ADO.NET Data Services tooling

· Visual Basic and Visual C++ components and tools (including an MFC-based Office 2007 style ‘Ribbon’)

· Improvements to TFS to respond to customer feedback on version control usability and performance, improved email integration with work item tracking and full support for hosting on SQL 2008.

· Improvements for Web development including richer JavaScript support, enhanced AJAX and data tools, and Web site deployment.

Will there be additional service packs for Visual Studio 2008 and the .NET Framework 3.5?

We plan to do appropriate servicing of both Visual Studio 2008 and the .NET Framework 3.5 during their product lifecycles. We are not commenting on further details or dates at this stage.

Is it compatible with Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008?

Yes

You said SP1 offers support for SQL Server 2008. When will SQL Server 2008 be available?

SQL Server 2008 will RTM in Q3 of this calendar year…so it’s coming soon!

Aren’t SP1s just supposed to deliver bug fixes? Why are you delivering so much new functionality?

We felt that the release of Service Pack 1 enabled us to significantly improve the developer experience with Visual Studio 2008 and the functionality in the .NET Framework 3.5. These additions cover a range of highly requested customer features and so we decided to take this opportunity to continue to make Visual Studio the best software development tool available.

You haven’t said much about improvements in Visual Studio 2008 – why is that?

As with any service pack, there are a number of product quality improvements specific to Visual Studio, such as performance improvements, bug fixes, etc.  However, most of the changes made to Visual Studio 2008 were designed to bring the application into alignment with the new features contained in the .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 and SQL Server 2008.

What was Arrowhead?

Arrowhead was an internal Microsoft codename used during the development process of updates to the .NET Framework 3.5. “Arrowhead” is no longer an active code name and we are simply focusing on what the features and improvement mean for developers and ISVs.

What are the supported operating systems for the .NET Framework 3.5 SP1?

Supported Operating Systems include: Windows Server 2003; Windows Server 2008; Windows Vista; Windows XP and others.

How big was the .NET Framework 3.5 full redistributable package?

197 MB

How big was the .NET Framework 3.5 bootstrapper?

2.7 MB

How big is the .NET Framework Client Profile full redistributable package?

26.5MB.  That is an 86.5% reduction in the size of the package.

How big is the .NET Framework Client Profile bootstrapper?

Approximately 0.5MB.  That is approximately 20% of the size of the .NET Framework 3.5 bootstrapper..."