The Mono Project announced the availability of Mono 2.0, which provides all the necessary software to develop and run .NET client and server applications on Linux, as well as other operating systems. Mono also powers the Moonlight project to deliver a Linux implementation of Microsoft’s Silverlight platform.

Some people feel that emitting code is akin to superheroes. Find out why Paul's powers include not just emitting code, but debugging it too!

Paul Vick, a principal architect on Visual Basic, is moving over to Microsoft's broad software modeling initiative known as "Oslo." Vick, who helped Microsoft deliver its popular VB tool set, will now help produce Oslo, which is expected by some to be as big a deal for Microsoft as .NET.

Microsoft has announced new application server technology, codenamed “Dublin,” that will surface in Windows Server. The company also announced enhancements to its Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) and Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) technology. Microsoft’s Dynamics applications will be first to use the new technology, while independent software vendors (ISVs) such as Amberpoint also have pledged to use the new Microsoft technology that will be unveiled at the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference in late October.

Microsoft announces Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4.0, and says the overall development strategy revolves around five pillars. The first pillar involves the Visual Studio Team System (VSTS) 2010, formerly codenamed “Rosario.”

Microsoft and Nokia announce support for the open-source jQuery JavaScript library. In addition, Microsoft says it will ship jQuery as part of its Visual Studio tool set. That offering will include jQuery intellisense, snippets, examples and documentation. Microsoft and Nokia join a long list of jQuery users, including Google, Intel, IBM, Intuit and Reuters.

IBM's 22-nanometer processor manufacturing is moving a step closer to reality after IBM, Mentor Graphics and Toppan Printing announce that they have come up with new ways to overcome the limitation of etching circuitry onto chips that are this small. In developing new methods for 22-nm chip manufacturing, IBM is looking to beat Intel to the market when it comes to smaller and smaller processors.

Windows HPC Server 2008 is designed to enable quicker deployment of high-performance capabilities and scalability from workstation to cluster. This is more evidence of the continued trickle-down of high-performance computing capabilities to enterprises and small-to-medium-size businesses.

At the High Performance on Wall Street conference, Microsoft’s high performance computing honcho, Bill Laing announced Windows HPC Server 2008. Microsoft’s goal is to take HPC mainstream and make Windows an alternative to Linux and Unix for HPC customers, particularly in the financial sector.

Need a huge database that contains special details of your server? You may already have one and not know it.

At the Rich Web Experience conference, the OpenAjax Alliance promotes OpenAjax Metadata, a specification to facilitate interoperability across AJAX IDEs. Another version of the OpenAjax Metadata specification supports widget interoperability and security.

Microsoft renames BizTalk Server 2006 R3 to BizTalk Server 2009. The new release will be available in the first half of 2009 and will feature support for Team Foundation Server (TFS), Visual Studio Team System, and the upcoming “Oslo” modeling platform.

Microsoft's Oslo tools and language platform is poised to push the company past .NET and into the cloud.

Microsoft's data-centric platform, which is aimed at empowering nondevelopers to build distributed applications, has roots in some very familiar apps.

Windows Server 2008 Server Core offers many new possibilities for developers, but first, you have to get your .NET application to run on it.

Mozilla has revved up its SpiderMonkey JavaScript engine with a new just-in-time compiler. The TraceMonkey project boosts JavaScript performance by an order of magnitude. TraceMonkey is slated for release in Firefox 3.1 and is expected to also boost Canvas development.

At the IFA fair in Berlin, the world's largest consumer electronics event, organizers of the fair say they are moving with the times as retail chains selling electronics replace specialist retailers and companies such as Philips, Samsung and LG no longer limit their products to electronic entertainment. Developers are also trying to use technology to make domestic appliances even more useful, such as a dryer that includes an ironing function or a washing machine that can be turned on via the Internet.

Microsoft and Novell expand their interoperability partnership with Microsoft buying up to $100 million in SUSE Linux certificates. The partnership helps enable SUSE Linux Enterprise Server and Windows Server to work together in the datacenter. Moreover, the companies will continue to work collaboratively on virtual-ization, systems management, directory and identity federation, document format compatibility, acces-sibility technology, and the Moonlight multimedia framework.

As Microsoft announces service pack releases of its Visual Studio 2008 and .NET Framework 3.5 technology, developers say the enhancements make for faster, better development. Microsoft's new service packs feature the .NET Framework Client Profile, ADO.Net Data Services and ADO.Net Entity Framework.

Need to build a multi-tier Web application where parts run on the server and other parts run on the client? Volta may provide the answer you need.