The wait is over!  Microsoft has released the first Release Candidate for Silverlight 2.0.  The full version number is 2.0.30523.9.  The version that will be released as Silverlight 2.0 will be 2.0.30903 and should be available here once released.  This is an important release in that it allows developers of Silverlight applications to test their applications and prepare them for the imminent release of Silverlight 2.0.

Some of the most exciting changes besides the much cleaner path between Silverlight and the full .NET framework is the addition of three controls that we have been waiting for (although we already rolled our own): ComboBox, ProgressBar, and PasswordBox.

There are a slew of changes that really stabilize and standardize this release, however you should be aware of things that will break your existing applications, so read the guide from Microsoft.  Also, Microsoft has provided some developer release notes that are quite useful so you should make sure to check those out as well.

Anyway, my downloads are done so I am off to play around with the new toolset and runtime.  Enjoy!

Get the Tools to build Silverlight 2 RC0 Applications

Microsoft Expression Blend 2 Service Pack 1 Preview

Microsoft Silverlight Tools for Visual Studio 2008 SP1

Get The Silverlight 2 Release Candidate 0 Runtimes

Download Silvleright 2.0 Release Candidate Runtime 0 for Windows

Download Silvleright 2.0 Release Candidate Runtime 0 for Macintosh

Breaking Changes in Silverlight 2 Release Candidate 0

• Important! Migrating Older Code to the Newer Release
• ContentPresenter now derives from FrameworkElement instead of Control
• Layout Rendering Slightly Changed
• Cross domain hosts of Silverlight must set the right MIME type for XAP (application/x-silverlight-app)
• Exceptions now thrown in HttpWebRequest.EndGetResponse()
• Font URI is Restricted to Assembly Resource
• Browser.HtmlElementCollection replaced with by Browser.ScriptObjectCollection
• Exceptions When Changing Some Properties on an Active Animation
• System.Windows.Controls.Extended.dll renamed to System.Windows.Controls.dll
• VisualStateManager Changes
• KeyDown Sent Synchronously
• MeasureOverride/ArrangeOverride on Canvas Now Sealed
• UriTypeConverter moved to System.dll
• HtmlPage.UnregisterScriptableObject Removed
• RenderingEventArgs Changes
• ContentPresenter and ContentControl Changes
• Removal of FileDialogFileInfo Type and OpenFileDialog.SelectedFile(s) Properties
• Removal of FullAccess Option on the ExternalCallersFromCrossDomain attribute in the Silverlight 2 application manifest
• KeyFrameCollection Changes
• Request stream must be closed before calling HttpWebRequest.BeginGetResponse()
• HtmlWindow references on Safari/Mac will no longer evaluate to true
• Address property removed from all WebClient EventArg classes
• Constructors Made Internal
• Exception type change for System.Xml exception type
• Cannot create classes in XAML that do not have accessible constructors
• Get AG_E_UNKNOWN_ERROR in Silverlight 2 but not in Silverlight 1
• Platform looks for generic.xaml as a resource at themes/generic.xaml
• HTTP Polling Duplex OM Changes and Reengineering
• Breaking change to Silverlight native hosting IXcpControl COM interface
• Content-Type is allowed on cross domain request by default
• Enforcing delegate type check when two delegate objects are combined
• Miscellaneous API Changes

Well there you have it!  Of course as always you should check out Scott Gu’s blog for all the awesome details of the release.