Microsoft's Atlas has made it through to its official Release To Web (RTW) as ASP.NET AJAX 1.0. The beta version has enjoyed some 180,000 downloads since November last year.

This is likely to be the tool web developers will need if they want to integrate the .NET Framework and the Microsoft Platform to the new generations of AJAX-based web applications.

Additional features in 1.0 that have not been in previous betas include performance and scalability improvements for shared hosting scenarios, enhanced training capabilities made available from Virtual Labs, and Microsoft Learning Online Clinics (here), as well as third-party reference materials and online tutorials.

Developers looking for insights and guidance may well find help on the blog of Microsoft's general manager for the web platform and tools team, Scott Guthrie. The release version can now be downloaded from here and the ASP.NET 2.0 AJAX extensions will be available under the Microsoft Reference License (Ms-RL) in the weeks following this release.

A recent Evans Data Corporation study has shown ASP.NET AJAX 1.0 rates just second to Adobe's Flex as the most secure scripting language. ®

Related stories

• Adobe targets developers with Apollo (19 March 2007)
• Microsoft AJAX framework shrugs free (24 January 2007)
• Book review Ajax Hacks (16 November 2006)
• Microsoft flips Atlas a second time (13 April 2006)
• A GI called Ajax (13 February 2006)