Microsoft has released Visual Studio 2008 and .NET Framework 3.5 to manufacturing and made them available to its MSDN subscribers for download.

Free downloads of their Express Editions, which include a Beginner Developer Learning Center and tools like Popfly and Silverlight, are available to anybody.

Officially VS 2008 (a k a Orcas) isn't supposed to be out until February 27, when Windows Server 2008 and SQL Server 2008 are launched to great fanfare.

VS 2008, which should make building Vista application easier, supports LINQ or Language Integrated Query, meaning SQL statements can be handled directly in C# and Visual Basic. It is supposed to close the gap between programming objects and data and be a rapid development tool.

VS 2008 can also be used to build AJAX-based web apps. It can be used to target multiple versions of software like existing .NET 2.0 and ASP.NET 2.0 programs and continue to deploy them on .NET 2.0 machines.

.NET Framework 3.5 supports Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) and Windows Communication Foundation (WCF). It can handle SOA, Web 2.0 and SaaS applications.

Microsoft also shipped XP SP3, the final service pack for XP, to 15,000 beta testers, expecting a broader beta down the road. SP3 is supposed to be released the first half of next year.