Microsoft late Wednesday released the March Community Technology Preview of "Orcas," the code-name for the next release of Visual Studio. Orcas will focus on development for Windows Vista and Office 2007, and the March CTP is available with or without VS Team Foundation Server.

Microsoft says it is looking for "early feedback" on the technologies it is planning to include in Orcas, which the Redmond company began talking about in late 2005. "Orcas will make it a whole lot easier for people to build Vista applications through easy to use designers and the like," said Soma Somasegar, corporate vice president of Microsoft's Developer Division. With Vista already out the door, Microsoft is working hard to complete Orcas and will surely discuss the release at its MIX '07 conference next month.