It has been a while, so to say, that SharePoint 2010 has been released and there are many of you interested in looking at SharePoint 2010 features and even try some development. Main block, of course, is to build your own environment, which can take even few days if you`re starting from the scratch and learn on your own mistakes.
The best approach is to download Demo VM created by MS tha will get the whole suite of tools installed and configured so you can get started with trying things out right away. Even if you already have (half)configured development environment – I still recommend taking a look at VM’s from Microsoft. For my TechDays 2010 session, some of you may know about – this is exactly what I`m going to use – to make sure that all of the speakers presenting my session across the country have consistent set up.
The VM I recommend to download is: 2010 Information Worker Demonstration and Evaluation Virtual Machine (RTM)
You need only part of the download – machine `a`, here is what you get with it:
-Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard Evaluation Edition x64, running as an AD Domain Controller
-Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Enterprise Edition with Analysis, Notification, and Reporting Services
-Microsoft Office Communication Server 2007 R2
-Microsoft Visual Studio 2010
-Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 Enterprise Edition
-Microsoft Office Web Applications
-Microsoft FAST Search for SharePoint 2010
-Microsoft Project Server 2010
-Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010
-Microsoft Visio 2010
-Microsoft Project 2010
-Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 R2
The VM is pretty hungry though, and requires 8GB of RAM. Mainly because of the Project Server, Office Web Applications, and FAST Search running on a same box. If you won`t be testing those services – feel free to shut them down and then you`ll be running smoother with less RAM.
Good Luck!
