Microsoft will announce Thursday morning the release of Visual Studio 2008 Beta 2. According to Scott Guthrie, the general manager of Microsoft's Developer Division, the release will be nearly feature complete and will likely be the last major release before the product is released to manufacturing in preparation for its launch on February 27, 2008.

Beta 1 of Visual Studio 2008 -- code-named "Orcas" -- was released in April, and brings with it features aimed at development for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008. Version 3.5 of the .NET Framework will accompany the release. "VS 2008 and .NET 3.5 Beta 2 (which will be out later this week) are pretty much feature complete," said Guthrie. "We'll do some small features additions/chanegs based on new feedback on Beta 2, but 99% of the features are all there."