Today we shipped Visual Studio 2015 CTP6 and TFS 2015 CTP1. You can download both here:
Download Visual Studio 2015 CTP 6 and Team Foundation Server 2015 CTP
You can also read the release notes to learn more about them:
Please submit bugs through Connect, suggestions on UserVoice and quick thoughts via Send-a-Smile in the Visual Studio IDE.
I know many people have been waiting a long time to see the first CTP of TFS 2015. I’ve even had quite a few people unsure of whether or not to believe that we actually intended to ship it :). We did. But, I keep telling people, that if you want to see what’s coming in TFS 2015, the best way to do so is check out VS Online. Although it’s not 100% fidelity to what will be in any given on premises release, it’s pretty close and is a great way to see it evolve every 3 weeks without having to go through any installations.
Although you can read much more detail in the release notes, let me call out a few notable areas of significant improvement/changes in TFS 2015.
Extensibility– TFS 2015 brings the full set of REST, OAuth and Service Hooks capabilities we’ve been developing in VS Online and enables the same rich set of integrations. This also brings with it some replumbing that, I think, will accelerate progress – particularly in the work item tracking area.
Agile tooling improvements– The list is just too long. We’ve made a ton of advancements in the past 6 months and most of them are in this CTP.
Licensing changes– This brings the remaining licensing changes – stakeholder, UAT, etc to on premises and better aligns our on-prem and cloud licensing than ever before.
Roll up of TFS 2013 Updates– And of course, TFS 2015 includes all of the features that were rolled out as part of the TFS 2013 wave of updates. For example, we did a huge number of improvements to our Testing and Test Case Management experiences in 2013 Updates that are rolled into TFS 2015.
Git– We've got a few Git improvements in this CTP but we’ve been rolling out most of our Git work in TFS 2013 Updates so there’s not a lot additional here. We’ve got more coming before RTM though.
I know many people are waiting with bated breath to see the new Team Project rename. I’m afraid it’s not in this CTP. It’s being worked on and we still expect to have it in TFS 2015 but it wasn’t complete in time for this CTP. Hang in there just a little bit longer. I’m hopeful it’s going to get into our next TFS 2015 preview release.
Orientation
I want to take a step back from what’s in the release to orient things. First, keep in mind that this is our first TFS 2015 CTP. It is *not* a “go-live” release. More than anything it was a forcing function for us to practice getting ready to ship TFS 2015. If you want to check it out – feel free. It should install fine but I also thoroughly expect you will find some bugs if you dig deeply. Over the next few months we’ll continue to refine it and will ship a “go-live” preview for use in a production environment. Until then, VS Online is still a great way to stay up to date on the latest developments.
This CTP is *not* feature complete. There’s actually quite a bit that wasn’t ready in time for this – some of that, you’ll already see on VS Online. There’s Team Project rename that I already mentioned, quite a bit of more GIt improvements, more Agile project management improvements, Build v.next (we’ll soon announce a limited preview on VS Online for you to check it out), and much, much more.
FWIW, I’ve even stopped thinking of TFS 2015 as a particularly major milestone. I don’t think in terms of major releases any more. For on prem, I think in terms of waves or generations. The TFS 2015 RTM will trigger the beginning of the TFS 2015 wave. That wave will include, I think, at least 2 or 3 updates with substantial new features in each one. Some of the stuff that we’re currently incubating on VS Online (like the new Code Search limited preview) won’t make it into TFS 2015 RTM but should show up in one of the 2015 Updates. It will be a steady stream of new improvements that you qualify for by upgrading to TFS 2015.
I look forward to hearing your feedback and can’t wait to get TFS 2015 finished so we can accelerate delivery in the TFS 2015 wave.
Thanks,
Brian