In case you haven't heard the news Beta 1 for Visual Studio 2005 (Whidbey) is now available. You can download it from here.
Two things of note. First of all, there are two versions of the beta available. The full-fledged version is available for MSDN Subscribers. As well, there is a new addition to the family of Visual Studio products. Or, more accurately, a flock of new additions. There is are a numner of Express versions available as a free, public beta. These express versions are light-weight editors and compilers focused on the different languages (VB.NET, C#, C++, J#), development environments (Web Dev) and databases (SQL Server Express). Very nice if you're looking to give .NET a try and don't have an MSDN subscription.
The only downside to the beta is that there is no provision in the license to deploy beta applications in a production environment. Word on the street is that a release license won't be available until beta 2. Bummer. I wanted to redevelop the ObjectSharp web site in VS 2005 :)