Should I start using VS2010 Beta 2 for development work now?

Question

Should I start using VS2010 Beta 2 for development work now?

What reasons are there for and against?

Answer 1

You can take two angles with this; using Visual Studio to build your solutions in a .NET 3.5 or earlier OR using it to build applications in .NET 4. Firstly, familiarise yourself with what’s new in both the IDE and the framework (I’ve got a quick, illustrated overview here and there's heaps of other info on the web) and see what you’re actually going to be able to take advantage of in your situation. Secondly, be aware of your target environment; If you’re publishing to shared hosting or client machines you need to consider whether the .NET 4 approach is wise while it's in beta.

I’ve previously built solutions on the last couple of generations of Visual Studio and .NET whilst in beta 2. You’ve got a go-live license so you can actually productionise solutions and both previous generations have been very stable without any significantbugs or changes from beta 2 to alpha versions.

If you can address the issues above, I say go for it!

Answer 2

Only if you're interested in trying it out. Don't use it for real work as it. It's a beta, which means that significant bugs may still be lying around in the code.

Answer 3

We started using VS*2008* Beta 2, when it came out, as our main dev environment - but targeted .NET Framework 2.0 only initially. This was mainly because VS2005 was such a dog. As to whether you want to start targeting .NET 4.0 now is your decision - but I can't see the harm in using it for targeting .NET 2.0 - 3.5.

I think we'll stick with VS 2008 for our main dev environment until at least a 2010-compatible version of CodeRush/Refactor Pro comes out.

Answer 4

I say whats wrong with 2008? You could use 2010 to build for 3.5 framework if you really wanted to, but I'd seriously leave it, it might be more trouble than its worth..who knows?

I have it installed and I've had a play with it and I've even installed resharper beta that works with 2010. But this is only to give the new tools a test run.

The company I work for are really good at keeping up with the latest tools, for example we have already rolled out windows 7 to some developer machines, but we wouldn't go as far as using a beta IDE in a production environment.