So you may or may not know that this month is a big one for Microsoft. Currently the SharePoint 2010 conference is going on in Vegas, and finally they’ve started to release some info about the product.

The main place to check out is the SharePoint 2010 Development Center

Some of the highlights so far are:

• WSS (Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 – seems to now be known as SharePoint Foundation)

• What’s New: Alerts Enhancements

• What’s New: Business Connectivity Services

• What’s New: Client Object Model

• What’s New: Events Improvements

• What’s New: Microsoft Synch Framework

• What’s New: Mobile Device Development Enhancements

• What’s New: Query Enhancements

• What’s New: Ribbon

• What’s New: Sandboxed Solutions

• What’s New: Service Application Framework

• What’s New: Silverlight Integration and the Fluid Application Model

• What’s New: UI Improvements

• What’s New: Windows PowerShell for SharePoint

• What’s New: Workflow Improvements

• Microsoft SharePoint Server 2007 is now know as SharePoint Server (bye bye MOSS acronym!, hello SS?!!)

• What’s New: Business Connectivity Services (BCS)

• What’s New: Enterprise Content Management (ECM)

• What’s New: SharePoint Enterprise Search

• What’s New: PerformancePoint Services

• What’s New: Excel Services

• What’s New: User Profiles and Social Data

• Word Automation Services Overview

I’ve also been looking at our internal SharePoint development environment for 2010. This page seems to give some hints that Windows 7 is supported, but not in the way I expected it to be. Here’s a snippet:

In any development environment, you should use a computer with an x64-capable CPU, and at least 2 gigabytes (GB) and preferably 4 GB of RAM for SharePoint Foundation, and 6 to 8 GB of RAM for SharePoint Server.

Following are the options:

• Install SharePoint on Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2 x64 (or Windows Server 2008 R2 x64).

• Use Microsoft Hyper-V and install SharePoint on a virtual machine running a Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2 x64 (or Windows Server 2008 R2 x64) guest operating system.

• Install SharePoint on Windows 7 x64, Windows Vista Service Pack 1 x64, or Windows Vista Service Pack 2 x64.

• Use Microsoft Hyper-V and install SharePoint on virtual machine running a Windows 7 x64, Windows Vista Service Pack 1 x64, or Windows Vista Service Pack 2 x64 guest operating system.

Windows 7 and Windows Vista cannot be used for production deployments of SharePoint 2010

Also

If you are using Windows 7, you can also create a VHD on which SharePoint is installed in Windows Hyper-V and then configure Windows 7 with BDCEdit.exe so that it boots directly to the operating system on the VHD. This improves performance because the virtualization layer is not present. It also enables you to use VHD differencing disks (VHDs that contain only elements that differ from a single base installation), which save disk space and make it easier to roll back changes. See Deploy Windows on a Virtual Hard Disk with Native Boot

So does this mean countless reboots for us to switch from the host to a well performing VHD? At this point I’m leaning towards staying with VMWare – at least until more investigation has been carried out. The memory requirements also give cause for concern!

Just seen this on the SharePoint Team Blog found here

• SharePoint Server 2010 will be 64-bit only.
• SharePoint Server 2010 will require 64-bit Windows Server 2008 or 64-bit Windows Server 2008 R2.
• SharePoint Server 2010 will require 64-bit SQL Server 2008 or 64-bit SQL Server 2005.

I wonder what this means for all those development houses out there who have to go and replace laptops, with new copies of Windows 2008, SharePoint 2010 and SQL Server.

$$$$$$$$$$!!!!!!!!!