Releasing the Source Code for the .NET Framework Libraries

Scott Guthrie announced that Microsoft will be providing
source code of the .NET Framework libraries with the .NET 3.5 and VS 2008 release later this year.

They are offering the source code (with source file comments included) for the

1. .NET Base Class Libraries (System, System.IO, System.Collections, System.Configuration, System.Threading, System.Net, System.Security, System.Runtime, System.Text, etc)
2. ASP.NET (System.Web)
   
3. Windows Forms (System.Windows.Forms)
4. ADO.NET (System.Data)
5. XML (System.Xml)
6. WPF (System.Windows).
   

They will then be adding more libraries in the months ahead (including WCF, Workflow, and LINQ). The source code will be released under the Microsoft Reference License (MS-RL).

Developers will be able to download the .NET Framework source libraries via a standalone install (allowing you to use any text editor to browse it locally). Microsoft will also provide integrated debugging support of it within VS 2008.

Read more from Scott Gutherie