>Doesn't this indicate something a little unsettling about the software business when one of the most advanced software organizations in the world can't say exactly when they will release their product?
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>I recently purchased VS 2003 Pro because I wanted a stable environment in which to learn .NET. If I knew for certain MS was commited to releasing VS2005 in September, I might have waited. But I really didn't want to find out come September that January 2006 is the "new" release date.

There is a very specific target date for the release of Visual Studio 2005 (and SQL Server 2005) later this year, but that date is not publicly disclosed at this time. VS 2005 beta 2 is a good stable version for learning, and it very much on track to will be released before the end of 2005.