Greetings from Boston – as I sit here on wireless in the convention center for TechEd.

A few folks have asked about the Starter Site so I figured I would provide an update. Now that the product itself is virtually done, the team is shifting gears to put a big emphasis on the Starter Site to get it wrapped up as well.

The Starter Site will be shipped in the August timeframe to coincide with the general availability of Commerce Server 2007 as a Web download. There are no drops for RC+ builds nor are there planned to be any public drops between now and August.

I think it will definitely be worth the wait though – as we have gotten the product baked and now can get a requisite showcase of functionality to quickly get started equally baked. Although I personally would loved to have seen it sooner, this is somewhat of a serial process and takes some time to get right. AND – by being a Web download – we can continue to enhance the Starter Site without being tied to the main release vehicles of the core product and requisite Service Packs.

For those at TechEd US in Boston this week, you can get a sneak preview – as we will be basing some of the demos on current (albeiit still work-in-process) builds of the Starter Site. Stay tuned…