Why does Microsoft tie .NET runtime versions to specific versions of VIsual Studio?

Why is it that I have to upgrade to VS 2010 to build/run .NET4 projects? This seems somewhat ridiculous to me. Why shou开发者_C百科ld the run-time that my code runs against, or the compiler that the IDE invokes (hopefully) generically through MSBUILD rules have anything to do with the IDE I am using?

---

There's usually a way to get it working with older VS versions. I know I was compiling WCF projects (3.5) on VS2005 before we upgraded to VS2008. You just have to set up the references by hand (and possibly change the MSBuild project file), and of course you lose out on the actual IDE enhancements (I wouldn't want to have done WPF on VS2005...)

---

Maybe because .Net 4.0 was vaporware when VS2008 was released so support for it was never baked in?

Maybe because MS is a company that needs to sell products to make money, they can't sell new licences if they just update old versions of the product?

Maybe because old versions of the product (VS2008) would take too much retooling to natively support .Net 4.0?

These are just random thoughts that may or may not help you with your current issue, which seems more like a rant than an issue?

---

Microsoft are a business. They develop new products using money made from selling existing products.