Happy New Year Best Wishes 2009

I was planning to post earlier, but unfortunately my first week after the holiday was filled with
unexpected challenges...

A new year always means that a lot of new things will happen, but I think 2009 is going to be one of those years that brings a lot of promising things to the .NET community. Personally, for me it's going to be even more interesting, so let me summarize some of the things I'm looking forward to.

• The release of Windows 7. I'm currently evaluating beta 1 of Windows 7 (build 7000) on my Asus EEE PC and it runs like a charm. Even though some have said that footprint was not smaller at all, I'm convinced that it needs lot less resources than Vista.


• The release of Visual Studio 2010 and the .NET Framework 4.0. I'm hoping for a first beta in March or April because working with the CTP virtual machine is a pain in the butt.


• The release of NHibernate 2.1 with complete LINQ support


• Another PDC from November 17th to 20st where we'll finally hear what Microsoft really meant with "Oslo". The TechED Europe is happening two weeks prior to that, so expect the official release of Visual Studio 2010 at the PDC. Rumours also say, Microsoft will announce Office 14 and the next release of MOSS.


• The new Star Trek movie directed by J. J. Abrams, the founding father behind Lost.


• "The Pacific", a 10-part mini-series from the creators of Band of Brothers, my all-time favourite movie.


• And last but not least, becoming a father of a beautiful daughter (assuming she inherits some of her mother's genes).