Today Visual Studio 2008 SP1 was released adding some really great enhancements to the development experience. Some of the enhancements include (taken from msdn):

• Richer JavaScript support, enhanced AJAX and data tools, and Web site deployment improvements
• SQL Server 2008 support
• ADO.NET Entity Designer
• Visual Studio Team System Team Foundation Server (TFS) addresses customer feedback on version control usability and performance, email integration with work item tracking and full support for hosting on SQL Server 2008.
• Improved WPF designers
• Visual Basic and Visual C++ components and tools (including an MFC-based Office 2007 style ‘Ribbon’)

The .Net framework also has an SP1 which includes the following enhancements:

• Performance increases between 20-45% for WPF-based applications – without having to change any code
• WCF improvements that give developers more control over the way they access data and services
• Streamlined installation experience for client applications
• Improvements in the area of data platform, such as the ADO.NET Entity Framework, ADO.NET Data Services and support for SQL Server 2008’s new features

You can get more details and download the whole pack at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/products/cc533447.aspx

Note: This is quite a large download at 831.3 MB