.NET 3.0

MS has decided to incorporate WinFX’s technologies (WPF, WCF, WF, WCS) into the current .NET Framework 2.0 so that they altogether make up .NET Framework 3.0. In other words, the compilers (C#, VB.NET etc.) and the CRL are still 2.0, and there’s no LINQ yet (which will be shipped as part of VS.NET Orcas and .NET 3.5). Whether to like this naming scheme or not is a matter of personal taste. Personally, I like the fact that .NET Framework 3.0 is used as an “umbrella” for WinFX because it makes a lot of sense for technologies like WPF and WCF to be part of the framework, instead of being part of a separate download, given that those technologies will likely to be very popular tools for .NET developers (just like WinForms and ASP.NET currently are).

On the other hand, although this plan generates the mismatch between the framework version and the language/compiler version, I don’t see it a big problem because this will eventually happen, if not now because changes to the language need not to be dependent on changes to the supporting platform (e.g. class libraries)

See more at: http://blogs.msdn.com/somasegar/archive/2006/06/09/624300.aspx and http://blogs.msdn.com/kaevans/archive/2006/06/11/626299.aspx