New Visual Studio 2005 Express products offer an alternative to the LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, Perl/Python/PHP) stack, Brust said. "This really answers a lot of what the LAMP stack otherwise would have had an exclusive on" in that a free development tool, free Web server, and free database are provided, he said.

Also a beta user of BizTalk Server 2006, Huckaby said that product "gets us closer to doing orchestration and messaging systems efficiently and easily."

The new version features complete integration with Visual Studio, making it easier to build enterprise applications, Huckaby said.

Between the second beta and the final, RTM (release to manufacturing) version, Microsoft did make some changes' to Visual Studio 2005. These were described as "minimal" by the company. Most applications developed on the second beta will run on the final version with minimal modifications, according to Microsoft.

For example, client application user settings will revert to default settings when upgrading from beta 2 to RTM. A fix was made to the location where user settings are stored, accounting for the change. While the application user settings are affected during the upgrade, the application itself still will run correctly, the company said.