>> You write "something that ALWAYS happened before", which is WRONG.
>> It may have happened to an earlier version, but only once according to my
>> knowledge.

To my knowledge, Microsoft has always shown bits and ideas for future versions at DevCon. Especially at the DevCons that were used to launch new versions, there already was talk about the next version.

So to my knowledge (and I have only missed the most recent DevCon an have been to all others since 1995), Mike is right.

Markus