This afternoon we published the 2010 release candidate for MSDN subscribers.  You can download it here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/dd582936.aspx.  While the release candidate doesn’t include every SKU, it includes most everything you might want to look at, including: VS (Pro, Premium and Ultimate), .NET 4 (Client and Full), TFS, Team Explorer, VS SDK and more. It should be available to everyone by Wednesday – it takes a little longer to propagate to the Microsoft public download site. Once you’ve used it for a while, we’d really appreciate your feedback on our RC survey. And, of course, you can file any issues you find on the VS Connect site. We’ve put a ton of work into the Release Candidate.  We’ve been working hard since Beta 2 on both stability and performance.  I’ve been using the RC build on my netbook for the last week or so and I have to say it really seems to be looking good.  It’s still not quite done yet.  We’re still fixing bugs and addressing a last few performance issues but if all the SLCTP feedback we’ve gotten is any indicator, then I really believe most of you will be very happy with it. In the vein of not quite finished yet, we did find one pretty nasty crashing bug after we signed off on the RC.  It happens with multi-touch devices and some screen readers.  We’re working on a patch for those of you who need it.  I’ll let you know when it is available.  In the last week I’ve been using it on my netbook, I haven’t had a single crash and I think I’ve only shut it down once. Good luck and please let us know what you think!

Brian