Earlier this morning, Microsoft released Visual Studio 2008.  MSDN subscribers can download the release bits from here.

Here're some related links:

• http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2007/11/19/visual-studio-2008-and-net-3-5-released.aspx
• http://weblogs.asp.net/fmarguerie/archive/2007/11/19/visual-studio-2008-now-available.aspx 
• http://www.snowball.be/Visual+Studio+2008+Released+YEEHAA.aspx
  

I personally think the Linq and Linq2Sql stuff will wind up being the big hit for this release.  But there is considerably more web developer goodness coming out of Microsoft with this latest Visual Studio Release, including much improved CSS support, support for Firefox, a new grid-like control (ListView) that allows us to produce much nicer HTML than the GridView did, etc.

From what I've seen in the past, as well as a few comments around the web, it may be a good idea to completely uninstall any VS.NET 2008 beta versions prior to installing the RTM version.

Yesterday, S. Somaseger, MS Developer Division Corporate VP, announced that Microsoft would be releasing Visual Studio 2008 and .NET 3.5 later this month.  You can read the press release by clicking here.

For many of us, this is a very meaningful release chock full of goodness for web development projects.  There have been a number of significant improvements to the IDE, including better support for Javascript and CSS.  Another potentially killer technology coming with .NET 3.5 is LINQ (Language INtegrated Query).

To read more about the upcoming Visual Studio release, and details on ASP.NET 3.5, go here.