Microsoft has announce that Visual studio is going to support a lot of open source technology. They have collaborated with a lot of open source developers to bring their support in. Recently Mr. S. Somasegar ( corporate vice president of the Developer Division at Microsoft) gives some idea that how Microsoft is  going to support Open source community. Here are some of the points from his blog.

Open Source in Visual Studio 2013 and TFS 2013

Visual Studio 2013 builds upon a lot of great open source software.  In fact, many developers are surprised to hear just how much OSS is part of Visual Studio and Team Foundation Server.  Scott Hanselman has been sharing this slide in some of his talks, summarizing the open source projects used in various Visual Studio offerings.

 

Some of these are projects started by individuals or teams at Microsoft, and now developed as open source.  Others are projects where we have become contributors to successful existing open source projects.  And others are places where we have been able to build on top of the great work in the open source community to provide richer capabilities in Visual Studio.

We couldn't ship Visual Studio without these projects, and I'd like to join Scott in thanking everyone who has contributed to these projects for the support they've provided to Visual Studio 2013 and TFS 2013.

To highlight some of the flavor of open source in Visual Studio, here's a few examples:

LibGit2

Visual Studio and Team Foundation Server now support Git source control natively, and Visual Studio developers are using distributed version control via Git across a wide variety of development activities in Visual Studio.

Our support for Git builds upon the libgit2 project, also used by GitHub and others in the Git community.  Several Microsoft employees in our version control team now actively contribute to this project, helping to support this cross-platform, linkable, Git library written in C, as well as providing first-class support for the library on Windows.  We also actively contribute to the libgit2sharp project which provides a .NET wrapper around the libgit2 library.  This makes it easy for any .NET developer to quickly build integration with Git. 

Building upon these two libraries in our Visual Studio integration enabled us to deliver great support for Git in Visual Studio while contributing back to the community and providing additional testing and validation for the open source library.

Node.js Tools for Visual Studio

We recently released a preview of Visual Studio support for Node.js.  This project supports editing, project management, profiling and debugging for the open source Node.js platform from within Visual Studio. 

The Node.js Tools for Visual Studio project is developed on CodePlex and has had major contributions from industry partners, including NPM management UI and Edit and Continue support.  The project also builds upon the open sourceNode.js platform generally, with support for debugging based on the open-source V8 engine's debugger protocol.

Speaking of Node.js, we also have an open source Node.js SDK for Windows Azure.  We have partnered with Microsoft Open Tech, our open source subsidiary, to make contributions to Node.js core to ensure it works great on Windows and Windows Azure.

ASP.NET Web Stack

Two years ago, we open sourced the ASP.NET web stack on CodePlex and transferred it to MS Open Tech.  Since then, the project has benefited from significant contributions from many developers from the community.  These ASP.NET technologies continue to be the foundations of one of the most heavily used project types in Visual Studio.

The ASP.NET developer ecosystem has also increasingly adopted open source technologies as core pieces of the modern ASP.NET web development platform.  In Visual Studio, we now include many of these projects as part of the default templates, including JSON.NET, OWIN, jQuery, Modernizr and Bootstrap.

TypeScript

We decided early on that we wanted TypeScript to be an open source language and compiler.  Developing TypeScript on CodePlex over the last 18 months has enabled us to evolve the language and tools rapidly toward the upcoming TypeScript 1.0. 

We've also seen a great open source community build up around TypeScript, including build system integration and IDE support in Eclipse, WebStorm and more.  One especially interesting project in the TypeScript open source community isDefinitelyTyped, which hosts a curated collection of TypeScript library typings for over 300 popular JavaScript libraries, with over 4000 contributions from over 350 people.  And in n Visual Studio 2013 Update 2, we've added features to make it easy to find these library typings, building on this great open source project.

Looking Forward

These projects are just a sampling of the places we're working with open source in our developer tools.  The trend these examples highlight is one that I fully expect to accelerate both in our developer tools and across additional platforms and applications at Microsoft.  I'm happy to see the benefits developers are seeing from our partnerships with open source over the last few years, but also looking forward to the opportunities we have ahead of us. 

Anil Kumar Pandey
Microsoft MVP, Microsoft MCC, DNS MVM

Web Matrix 2

WebMatrix is a free and lightweight web development tool. You can easily Create, publish, and maintain your own website using Web matrix.

1   Open Source Tool:- You can configure any open source tool in web matrix easily. A lot of open source tool are supported inside web matrix.

       2      Top Language Support:  you can make use of the top programming languges for creating website or application. For example ASP.NET, PHP, Node.js, or HTML5 templates, and take advantage of the latest web standards, emerging standards (CSS3, HTML5), and popular JavaScript libraries such as JQuery.

3.    Cloud Support:- Many websites requires higher availability and scale, With WebMatrix, you can directly deploy your web sites to Windows Azure (Cloud Platform)  and enjoy full support for the new Windows Azure Web Sites. This will give us a great flexibility and support.

4.    Mobile Device Support : Many users now a days surf websites via smart phones, tablets, and other devices. It is important to create your websites not only for the desktop, but also for these new devices. WebMatrix has several integrated features that ease this task for developers. WebMatrix offers a variety of Mobile templates that work well on mobile devices and on the desktop. They are built using best practices for jQuery Mobile, HTML5 and CSS3. With these templates, you can create mobile-friendly websites in a matter of minutes.

5.    Community Support: You can write your own extension in the existing functionality thus making it available for the other community users. There is no restriction at all. you're wondering how your site would look on an iPhone, there’s an extension for that. You can browse for extensions and install them without ever leaving WebMatrix. You can quickly create and upload your extension to the Extension Gallery, where it will be available both online and from within our gallery inside WebMatrix.

6.    Database Support : Almost every websites use databases for storing data, users and other information. WebMatrix lets you work seamlessly with data across SQL Server, SQL Server Compact Edition (SQL CE) and MySQL. SQL CE is a lightweight, single-file database engine that can be copied easily alongside your code files. It’s integrated with WebMatrix, and allows you to build data-driven websites quickly.

7.    Developer Productivity: WebMatrix offers a rich editor designed for productive coding with auto completion, syntax highlighting, code collapsing, and code validation.

 You can download the Web Matrix from the below location. Download. These infromation are gathered from Microsoft site, For more information please visit the below Microsoft site http://www.microsoft.com/web/category/all.

Thanks

Anil Kumar Pandey

Microsoft MVP, Microsoft MCC,DNS MVM

Microsoft New Logo

Microsoft’s the s/w giant has unveiled a new logo for the company recently...

It has been 25 years since Microsoft updated its logo and the IT now thought for a change. The year is going to be exciting one for Microsoft as they have a lot of new release new versions of nearly all of their products. From Visual studio 2012, Windows 8 to Windows Phone 8 and next version of Office, Microsoft users will see a common look and feel across these products. They feel their new logo should represent the change in the product and the beginig of a new era.        

   

"The Microsoft brand is about much more than logos or product names. We are lucky to play a role in the lives of more than a billion people every day. The ways people experience our products are our most important 'brand impressions'. That’s why the new Microsoft logo takes its inspiration from our product design principles while drawing upon the heritage of our brand values, fonts and colors," says the company in its official blog.

The logo has two components: the logotype and the symbol. For the logotype, Microsoft is using the Segoe font which is the same font they use in their products as well as their marketing communications. The symbol is important in a world of digital motion, and is aptly demonstrated in a video in their blog post. The symbol’s squares of color are intended to express the company’s diverse portfolio of products.

"We’re excited about the new logo, but more importantly about this new era in which we’re reimagining how our products can help people and businesses throughout the world realize their full potential," says the company as it sign off the announcement on its webiste. 

Please share your thoughts on the change of the MS logo. Post if you like and even if you don’t like the logo. I will wait for your response.

Thanks

Anil Kumar Pandey

Microsoft MVP, Microsoft MCC,DNS MVM

Report a Bug in VS2012

As we all know that Visual Studio 2012 Preview is released, this is still not the final version of the application so there are chances that you may bind a Bug in application. If in case you came across any bug that need to be sent to the Microsoft development team, so that this can be fixed in the final version of the application.

The Feed back for the visual studio bugs can be send very easily, the option to report a bug is present in the editor only, Just right click on the editor and you can  find the option to Report a Bug.

There is a nice article with more details and screen shots are availabe on the Microsoft Connect site.

Please make use of this URL to find out the process of reporting a bug. Microsoft Connect
By this we can help the visual studio 2012 team to present a bug free applciation that will make the developers life more easy.

Once you are done with all the steps the final screen of feedback will be as follows

Hope you will make use of the Microsoft Connect site to get more information on submitting a bug. Please provide your valuable comment on the same.

Thanks

Anil Kumar Pandey

Microsoft MVP, Microsoft MCC, DNS MVM

Microsoft Surface

On Monday evening 19^th June, Microsoft unveiled its Surface tablet – a new branded 10.6in device that comes up with inbuilt  keyboard: There is two version for the same , one with an ARM chip ("WinRT"), and another with an Intel chip ("x86"). We can create  Software to run on both.

The Surface has a built-in kickstand and magnetic cover, which also acts as a touch keyboard but there is no information that whether this is Wi-Fi enable or with a Mobile connectivity. It’s said that this will be a tough competitor for the Apple i-Pad. There is little information about the software present in it but it comes with a exciting list of Hardware.

The Specification for the 2 Versions are:

 OS                  Windows RT                Windows 8 Pro

Light 1                 676 g                            903 g

Thin 2                  9.3 mm                         13.5 mm

Clear               10.6” ClearType HD   10.6” ClearType Full HD Display

                          Display   

Energized      31.5 W-h                       42 W-h

Connected     microSD, USB 2.0,       microSDXC,

Micro HD Video,         USB 3.0, Mini DisplayPort Video

2x2 MIMO antennae   2x2 MIMO antennae

Productive     Office Home & Student 2013 RT,      Touch Cover

 Touch Cover,                                      Pen with Palm Block

Type Cover                                          Type Cover

Practical         VaporMg Case & Stand                      VaporMg Case & Stand

Configurable 32 GB, 64 GB             64 GB, 128 GB

Hope it fun working with Surface and could have lot of new software support. Please refer the official Microsoft Site to get more details on it. http://www.microsoft.com/surface/en/us/gallery.aspx

Here are some of the Images for Surface tablet.

Thanks

Anil Kumar Pandey

Microsoft MVP, Microsoft MCC,DNS MVM

Visual Studio 2012 RC

Hi Friends,

Visual Studio 2012 RC is ready to use, they are not released finally as these are only Pre-Release versions. We can download it from Microsoft site. There are 4 version of the Visual studio 2012 currently they are

1. Visual Studio Ultimate 2012
2. Visual Studio Premium 2012
3. Visual Studio Professional 2012
4. Visual Studio Test Professional 2012

All version are having special features as per your requirement. I just wanted to inform you all about the difference between the various version of the Visual Studio 2012. Below is a chart that provide details.

	Visual Studio Ultimate 2012	Visual Studio Premium 2012	Visual Studio Professional 2012	Visual Studio Test Professional 2012
Debugging and Diagnostics	****	***	**
IntelliTrace (Historical Debugging)
IntelliTrace in Production
Code Metrics
Graphics Debugging
Advanced Web Debugging
Static Code Analysis
Debugger
Windows 8 Metro Style Simulator
Profiling	Includes Tier Interaction Profiling	Includes Tier Interaction Profiling
Windows Phone 7 Emulator
Testing Tools	****	***	*	**
Web Performance Testing
Load Testing
Microsoft Fakes (Unit Test Isolation)
Code Coverage
Coded UI Testing
Manual Testing
Exploratory Testing
Test Case Management
Fast Forward for Manual Testing
Lab Management
Extensible Testing Framework
Unit Testing
Integrated Development Environment	****	****	***
Code Clone
LightSwitch
One-Click Web Deployment
Extensible WPF-Based Environment
Model Resource Viewer
Multi-Targeting
Blend for Visual Studio
JavaScript and jQuery Support
Project & Solution Compatibility with Visual Studio 2010 SP1
Multiple Monitor Support
Development Platform Support	****	****	****
Windows Desktop Development
Windows Metro style Application (including ARM) Development
Web Development
Windows Phone Development
Office and SharePoint Development
Cloud Development
Customizable Development Experience
Architecture and Modeling	****	**	*
Architecture Explorer
Architecture and Layer Diagrams
Architecture Validation
UML® 2.0 Compliant Diagrams (Activity, Use Case, Sequence, Class, and Component)		Read-Only Diagrams
Visualize Code with Dependency Graphs (By Assembly, By Namespace, and By Class)		Read-Only Diagrams	Read-Only Diagrams
Lab Management	****	****		****
Virtual Environment Setup & Tear Down
Provision Environment from Template
Checkpoint Environment
Team Foundation Server	****	****	***	****
Backlog Management
Sprint Planning
Agile Task boards
Exception Analytics
SharePoint Integration (Team Project Portal) Microsoft SharePoint Server licensed separately			Requires full Team Foundation Server and CAL which are included with MSDN Subscription or available for purchase separately
Reporting & BI			Requires full Team Foundation Server and CAL which are included with MSDN Subscription or available for purchase separately
Project & Project Server integration Microsoft Project and Project Server licensed separately			Requires full Team Foundation Server and CAL which are included with MSDN Subscription or available for purchase separately
System Center Integration Microsoft System Center licensed separately			Requires full Team Foundation Server and CAL which are included with MSDN Subscription or available for purchase separately
Version Control
Work Item Tracking
Build Automation
Collaboration	****	****	**	***
PowerPoint Storyboarding
Feedback Manager
Code Review
Task Suspend/Resume
Team Explorer
Team Explorer Everywhere for TFS (3rd-Party Development Tools Support)
Software and Services for Production Use	****	***	*	*
Ultimate Feature Packs
Team Foundation Server			Requires MSDN Subscription
Team Foundation Server CAL			One Team Foundation Server CAL per subscription
Office Professional Plus
Project Professional
Visio Premium
Windows Azure Windows Azure benefits vary by offering
Software for Development and Testing	****	****	*	*
Windows, Windows Server			Requires MSDN Subscription
Microsoft SQL Server			Requires MSDN Subscription
Microsoft Office
Microsoft Dynamics
All other Microsoft servers (SharePoint, Exchange, etc.)
Other Benefits	****	****	*	*
Technical Support Incidents	4	4	2 Requires MSDN Subscription	2
Microsoft E-Learning Collections (per year)	2	2	1 Requires MSDN Subscription	1

To Download the Version of the Visual Studio here are the links.

  Ultimate
 Premium
 Professional
Test Professional


The Platform compatibility and Hardware support/requirement for Visual Studio 2012 

Supported Operating Systems

• Windows 7 (x86 and x64)
• Windows 8 (x86 and x64)
• Windows Server 2008 R2 (x64)
• Windows Server 2012 (x64)

Hardware Requirements

• 1.6 GHz or faster processor
• 1 GB of RAM (1.5 GB if running on a virtual machine)
• 10 GB (NTFS) of available hard disk space
• 5400 RPM hard drive
• DirectX 9-capable video card running at 1024 x 768 or higher display resolution

Supported Architectures

• 32-bit (x86)
• 64-bit (x64)

Hope these information are useful for you and you are going to use the new improved visual studio 2012. For more information you can visit the official Microsoft site that is  Visual Studio 2012

Thanks

Anil Kumar Pandey

Microsoft MVP, Microsoft MCC,DNS MVM