Microsoft has rescheduled its most significant developer meeting for late 2008,
after cancelling the Professional Developers Conference (PDC) that was originally
planned for October 2007.
The Microsoft PDC is now on for Oct. 27 to Oct. 30, 2008, at the Los Angeles
Convention Center, according to Microsoft's public relations firm. The conference,
which hosts the largest crowd of any of Microsoft's developer gatherings, is
typically held every other year and is timed to give developers an early look
at new releases of some of Microsoft's most strategic software products.
The technologies in the spotlight at next year's PDC are expected to be Windows
Server 2008, SQL Server 2008 and Visual Studio 2008. Together, the three mark
a major enterprise product cycle for the company, which has planned a launch
event -- also in Los Angeles -- for all three products on Feb. 27, 2008.
Not all products will be available at that time, however. While Visual Studio
2008 is already available, and Microsoft is expected to ship Windows Server
2008 on the day of the launch, the company has given itself until midyear for
the final release of SQL Server 2008.
When Microsoft announced in May it was cancelling this year's PDC, the company
said the timing was inconvenient to show off these infrastructure releases to
developers. Microsoft watchers and partners at the time said it made sense the
company would postpone the show until Windows Server, SQL Server and Visual
Studio were more fully baked.
On Wednesday Microsoft released a new test version of Windows Server 2008,
called Release
Candidate 1, to developers, as well as offered a refresh of Windows Vista
Service Pack 1. Visual
Studio 2008 is available online, while SQL Server 2008 is available in technology
preview.
