As promised, Microsoft released Silverlight 2 Beta 2 today. While the main Silverlight and Expression Studio sites have not yet been updated, the software has been placed on the Microsoft Servers. The links are at the end of the article. The most amazing thing I see in Silverlight 2 Beta 2 is that the size of the installer hasn’t increased at all! It still takes like 5 seconds to install on most of my machines that use. Increasingly powerful, the same size! I love it! Expect to see some really cool Silverlight applications in the next few weeks as Microsoft finally gives Silverlight 2 the “Go Live” stamp of approval.
What’s New In Silverlight 2 Beta 2
There is a ton of new stuff shipping with Silverlight 2 Beta 2, including updates to some features that everyone loves. Some of the changes include:
- Tab Control – Yes they finally have a TabControl for us to use.
- Text Wrapping in TextBox – Seems basic, but its true, you can now wrap text
- LINQ – Some nifty updates to LINQ
- Visual State Manager for Controls – Should be fun to play with some of these new features
- WCF Duplex Communications – Should make it easy to communicate changes in state to the back end.
- Cross-domain changes to sockets
- DeepZoom
Update: The Silverlight.net site has now been updated!
Install Silverlight Tools Beta 2 for Visual Studio 2008
Install Expression Blend 2.5 June 2008 Preview
Install Silverlight Runtime for Windows
Download Silverlight 2 Beta 2 Documentation
For complete detail of the new features available in Silverlight 2 Beta 2, please check out Scott Gu’s Blog! The blogger master has some fantastic details on the product, and all the new features that accompany the release.
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Open Source Silverlight Chart Visifire is now compatible with Silverlight 2 Beta 2