Microsoft has released Visual Studio 2005 and SQL Server 2005 to manufacturing.
Users can expect a so-called community technology preview of BizTalk Server 2006.
The tools are set to be officially launched by Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer on 7 November at an event in San Francisco.
The release to manufacturing means that the product is finished and ready to be sent out to hardware manufacturers and distributors, while a technology preview signals that additional changes can be expected.
Microsoft is increaing its sale pitch in putting up SQL Server against IBM's DB2, Oracle and Sybase databases. To increase the pressure on those and other competitors, Microsoft will offer a 50 per cent discount for the lifetime of the product to switching customers signing up for the subscription Software Assurance service.
