Microsoft has announced that they will allow developers to download the source code for their .NET Framework.

This is quite an interesting move from Microsoft. It is a good move, even though you can not change the source code, I think it will help many developers.

The source will be available with the new .NET 3.5 Framework and Visual Studio 2008. Perhaps the coolest thing about this is that you will now be able to dig into the actual source of the framework when debugging your code, something that I wanted to do for a long time.

Having source code access and debugger integration of the .NET Framework libraries is going to be really valuable for .NET developers. Being able to step through and review the source should provide much better insight into how the .NET Framework libraries are implemented, and in turn enable developers to build better applications and make even better use of them.