Visual Studio 2008 is now available the old-fashioned way — through retail and volume licensing. The new IDE has been available to MSDN subscribers for a good two months now, and MSDN availability has expanded as well.

Microsoft’s US ISV Developer Evangelism team has a blog post about the announcement. The post also reminds readers of Visual Studio 2008’s new features and provides links to a bunch of relevant resources.

If you haven’t given Visual Studio 2008 a spin yet but intend to do so, then here are two things you may want to check out:

• Earlier this week Microsoft made available a Visual Studio 2008 product comparison data sheet, which is available as a Word doc, a PDF file or an XPS file. This will help you see what each version includes and excludes.
• Once you’ve decided which version is right for you, you can grab a free 90-day trial download of Visual Studio 2008. (Don’t forget about the free-in-perpetuity Visual Studio 2008 Express editions.)

Of course, as The Register points out, the Visual Studio 2008 release, coupled with the recent SQL Server 2008 delay, means that the upcoming Microsoft launch event in Los Angeles is even less important than originally intended — which is not at all to say that the VS team should be chided for getting the retail version out a month ahead of the launch event.