I finally got around to downloading the Orcas September 2006 CTP bits, and started to play with it a bit. If you want to play along with me, you can download it here, or if you have a MSDN subscription, it is up there too (and I think the download times from the MSDN Subcription are a bit better, plus you get to stop and resume the downloads). Just remember that you have to download both the Base Image and the Sept 2006 Image.
Here's some on my initial feedback:
What is the deal with having a base VPC image and a Orcas September VPC differencing disk? I could understand it if the base VPC was the larger of the 2 disks, but base image is compress to 1154 MB and the Sept CTP image is compressed to 3690 MB, so I don't see a big saving in download times on future CTPs. The only thing I can think of is a savings in bandwidth costs.
The VPC is using Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition SP1, which on the surface is strange, since most developers don't develop on Windows Server, and definitely not on the Enterprise Edition. I'm guessing that Orcas is suppose to be geared towards Vista development, so I can understand not using Windows XP, but I wonder why not Windows Server 2003 R2.
As Dan Moth found out, the VPC doesn't run on Vista.
I have no idea why they didn't install the Virtual Machine Additions, so I had to install them. It isn't fun working with VPC without these improvements. Oh, the undo disk is turned on by default, so make sure to either turn the undo disk off before installing the additions, or save the changes when you close.
To save a little space (I already have many, many VPCs on my external hard drives), I decided to merge the Orcas CTP dif disk with the Base Image. When you uncompress the downloaed files, the base image expands to 2857 MB, and the Orcas disk expands to 9728 MB. If you merge them (using the VPC tool), the new disk will be 9841 MB, saving about 2.7 GB.
The password for the administrator account is P@ssw0rd. The capital "P" and the zero instead of an "o" is important to know.
The Sept 2006 Orcas CTP does not include everything from the LINQ, C# 3.0 or VB 9.0 May CTPs, as the release schedules didn't align. Seems like the LINQ team has been doing some quality improvements/enhancements, and we will have to wait for the new updated bits in a future CTP. So, if you are looking for the latest and greatest (and potentially buggy) LINQ stuff, it is still in the May CTP.
This VPC comes with SQL Server 2005 Express installed. I didn't check to see if SP1 is installed.
The first public build using the term "Green Bits". If you missed Somasegar's blog post on Orcas Compatibility (or you are just as totally confused as everyone else and need a refresher), go over and read it. The following is from the Add/Remove Programs List:
- Microsoft Framework 2.0
- Microsoft Framework 2.0 for Orcas CTP - ENU
- Microsoft Framework 3.0
- Microsoft Framework 3.5 (Green Bits)
Welcome to naming hell.