We got the Microsoft development rally cry from S. (Soma) Somasegar. Visual Studio / SQL Server have really come a long way in terms of their broad application to many types of development. Anyway, here are some stats (I don’t recall how these have changed since the Visual Studio launch) about adoption:

• Over 10 million .NET Framework 2.0 downloads. Good (as this is a pet issue for me). I still wonder about penetration of .NET 1.1 / .NET 2.0 on consumer machines.
• 1.8 million Visual Studio Express downloads.
• Over 300,000 SQL Server Express downloads.

The new platform is beating Java in the enterprise: platform chosen for mission critical applications: 25% Java / J2EE, 35% Microsoft .NET. Look at this IDC report for these and other statistics.

There was also a very cool demo of Visual Studio Team System and server builds — the coolest part being the workflow model for builds. Significant Team Foundation Server dates:

• There will be a Team Foundation Server Release Candidate at the end of this week.
• RTM in March.

Maybe I’ll start playing with the RC once it is out (in my “spare” time).