Microsoft has confirmed the availability of Visual Studio 11 Beta for February 29, 2011. This brand new flavor of Visual Studio will feature a cleaner, chrome-less design that Microsoft claims is best for the developer. VS will also feature Developer Achievements, where developers will be able to earn achievements much like in gaming on the Xbox; Microsoft has also revamped the software performance-wise, killing the chrome off the installation process 

          and adding more coding goodness as well as new templates to get devs started off quick. Visual Studio 11 is the tool for Windows 8 Development. If you are developer, you can use the Developer Preview of Visual Studio 11, running on Windows 8.

Image Credit: Microsoft