If you were exploring options for an upgrade, tell me why you would want to use VS 2008?  Are there case studies which show a reduction in development time and costs if developing a project in 2008 compared to 2005, or 2003 for that matter?

Yes I have seen Ajax control toolkit.  It is nice, but there are numerous Ajax libraries I can leverage w/out switching to 2008. 

Give me some reasons why YOU would upgrade.  What are YOU not taking advantage of by staying with an earlier version. 

 Apart from the better overall functionality, VS2008 gives you the possibility to develop for .NET 3.0/3.5 (and 2.0)

There are so many reasons

1. You can debug js and have js Intellisense support.
2. You have full css support and good layout designer.
3. You can experience LINQ and some new controls
4. You don't have to do too much change when you upgrade from vs2005.

 

tocohara:

If you were exploring options for an upgrade, tell me why you would want to use VS 2008?  Are there case studies which show a reduction in development time and costs if developing a project in 2008 compared to 2005, or 2003 for that matter?

A reduction in development would be due to the fact that VS2008 is not just an upgrade. Its all most like having VS2005 pumped on av gas. It is packed with so many more features, The previous posters have named only a few. Because of all these new features plus the added 3.5 framework (Is refered sometimes as the 2.0 - 3.5 update) there is alot more power to VS 2008 and it requires that power from the PC and if the PC infact is well built VS2008 is actually faster and improves the speed of development but installing it on a 1.3ghz computer with 1gb of ram that previously had vs2005 yes it would seem to perform slower because of all the added features.

tocohara:

Yes I have seen Ajax control toolkit.  It is nice, but there are numerous Ajax libraries I can leverage w/out switching to 2008.

You have intellesnse for AJAX and Java Script

tocohara:

What are YOU not taking advantage of by staying with an earlier version. 

We still use earlier version (vs2005) in some cases its handy to have both on the same system. We have found that we dont really see the point in that as we can run multipule instances of our 2008 version we can do the same things as 2005 versions, but so much more in VS2008. Would not ever regret moving to VS2008

everything is changing and updating.

i just follow microsoft.

I am probably biased, but anyway, some bits of information:

VS 2003 only supports .NET 1.1, you cannot use it for ASP.NET 2.0 development. 2.0 has many new useful features and controls and works faster.

VS 2005 supports ASP.NET AJAX 1.0 and you can use third party AJAX frameworks, but you won't get any intellisense in JS files apart from basic HTML DOM. VS 2005 does not support .NET 3.5.

VS 2008 allows you to develop for both 2.0 and 3.5. I think improvements in script intellisense, especially in ASP.NET AJAX are significant.

 So you fellows point towards using the Ajax library & intellisence.  Why upgrade to 2008 when other Ajax libraries mimic similiar components in the MS Ajax library?  I understand you can enjoy intellisense after upgrading to 2008.  But I can't justify spending the cash just for intellisense benefit.  If there are components that are unique to MS, then just create a custom component, or do without?  I can't justify spending the cash and learning a new product.  Hope others can change my mind.