Visual Studio 2008 Official

Looking back, VS 2008 feels like the moment Microsoft stopped trying to lock developers into proprietary silos and started embracing a more open, unified approach to data and UI. It introduced tools that modern developers now take for granted: the ability to target multiple runtimes, a unified way to query data, and a robust environment for web development.

: For the first time, developers could use a single version of Visual Studio to target multiple versions of the .NET Framework (2.0, 3.0, and 3.5). This allowed teams to upgrade their tools without immediately forcing an upgrade of their production servers. visual studio 2008

The minimum system requirements for Visual Studio 2008 Professional Edition were: Looking back, VS 2008 feels like the moment