The Silverlight 4 Beta was unveiled at the Professional Developer's Conference (PDC) in Los Angeles, continuing the rapid pace of innovation for the Silverlight platform. In addition, ASP.NET MVC Beta 2 was released, which introduces improved Visual Studio tooling support, extensible client validation and lots of other features that help developers build Web sites and applications faster.
Silverlight
Silverlight helps companies design, develop and deliver engaging, interactive user experiences for Web, desktop and mobile applications when online or offline. Silverlight is a free plug-in, powered by the .NET Framework and compatible with multiple browsers, devices and platforms. With printing support, rich reporting and charting, and integration with back-end systems and server products including Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010, Microsoft Office and Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS), the Silverlight 4 Beta delivers a full suite of powerful features to application developers, bringing innovative platform capabilities to browser-based experiences.
For more information, see: http://www.silverlight.net/getstarted/silverlight-4-beta/.
Also, check out Tim Heuer’s Silverlight 4 Beta guide to new features for details on how to install all the tools and get started.
ASP.NET MVC
ASP.NET MVC is a free, fully supported framework that enables developers to quickly build standards-based, SEO-friendly Web sites by offering complete control over the HTML and URLs.
For more information, see: http://www.asp.net/mvc/.
Microsoft Office & SharePoint 2010 Beta
Microsoft Office 2010 gives you powerful new tools to express your ideas, solve problems, and connect with people. Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 is an integrated suite of server capabilities that can help improve organizational effectiveness by providing comprehensive content management and enterprise search, accelerating shared business processes, and facilitating information-sharing across boundaries for better business insight. Additionally, this collaboration and content management server provides IT professionals and developers with the platform and tools they need for server administration, application extensibility, and interoperability.
Fore more information, see: http://www.microsoft.com/2010/en/