Just noticed this through a link on Microsoft Watch:

Microsoft has started the next big Visual Studio release "Whidbey" Alpha program and sent mails to the qualified testers last day. "Whidbey" is the code name for the release of Visual Studio that's expected to ship in 2004. Excerpt of the mail sent is given below:

Dear Visual Studio "Whidbey" Alpha Tester,

Welcome to the Alpha release of Visual Studio "Whidbey."

For this alpha program, BetaPlace and Newsgroup services will be available to Whidbey Alpha participants. BetaPlace is Microsoft's technical pre-release Web community, where you, as an Alpha participant, can:

To access BetaPlace, go to http://www.betaplace.com. Sign in using your Beta ID and password, listed below. If this is your first time logging on to BetaPlace, you need to associate your Beta ID with a .NET Passport account.

Microsoft private newsgroups are available for technical support. After you have accepted the End Users License Agreement (EULA) at the Visual Studio "Whidbey" Alpha BetaPlace site, within two business days you will be granted access to the private "Whidbey" Alpha newsgroups. These newsgroups are accessed from a dedicated news server and require a User ID and Password before giving access.

All newsgroups for "Whidbey" Alpha program begin with: microsoft.beta.whidbey.*

Thank you for participating in this alpha program. We look forward to your valuable feedback.

The Visual Studio .NET and .NET Framework "Whidbey" Alpha Team