Choosing To Use .Net 4

Question

At the company I work for we are planning several projects that are scheduled to be released late in 2010. We currently have production applications running in all previous versions of .Net. When the development of the projects start, I would like to consider utilising .Net 4.0. Before this could occur, I would have to feel comfortable proposing the idea and would also have to convince management. I am looking for opinions of starting a new project with the .Net 4.0 framework as well as pointers for convincing management if the opinion is that the newest .Net framework should be used. One thing to consider is the tools we currently use (Telerik and EntitySpaces) and if there would be any issues using these tools with the .Net 4.0 framework. Both of the mentioned vendors claim there products will be ready to use with .Net 4 when the product is released, but I know there is no guarantee. I look forward to everyone's feedback. I know research on this topic would not be complete without posting the situation on SO :)

Answer 1

.NET 4 is in release candidate stage and very stable in my opinion. It also has a GoLive agreement which means it's supported in it's current state. It will be released this Spring so it will be RTM by the time you are ready to deploy. Having said that obviously you and the stakeholders must make the ultimate decision but I think it's a safe choice. Also because it's a new CLR version, migrating the app to 4.0 later could very well have breaking changes so starting with the 4.0 runtime would be a better idea than migrating later on in the development when those changes could impact your deadline.