Article by George Norman

On 19 Mar 2009

First there was Scott Guthrie’s announcement that he was pretty excited about Silverlight, then Microsoft asked users all over the world to provide their input on how Silverlight 3 would make them happy, and now it is finally here – Silverlight 3.0 Beta has been showcased at MIX09 and Microsoft has already made the software application available for download (note that at this point it is meant for developers). If Silverlight 2.0 can be taken as a measure of comparison, then we can expect Silverlight 3.0 to be adopted by a very large number of people (more than 100 million downloads were recorded a mere 5 weeks after Silverlight 2 was released; more 350 million were recorded in the year and a half since Silverlight has been released).

“In the short time since we launched Silverlight and Expression Blend, Microsoft has rapidly introduced new features and functionality that enable customers to deliver outstanding Web sites,”. “We are working closely with the community to deliver software that helps businesses provide customer experiences on the Web that go beyond ‘good enough’ and drive real business results”, said Corporate Vice President of the .NET Developer Platform with Microsoft, Scott Guthrie.


The Beta release comes with plenty of features: HD video support, improved navigation, multi-touch support for Windows 7 powered machines, hardware based graphics acceleration, new codecs, and for the first time ever Silverlight is capable of running outside the browser window, directly onto your desktop.

“Silverlight 3 offers web developers more than 60 controls to take advantage of – making it easy for them to create cutting-edge Web applications. Silverlight 3 expands on high-quality and high-definition video experiences with true high-definition video in full-screen mode including stutter-free live and on-demand video. Silverlight 3 supports more video formats, including H.264, and hardware-based media acceleration. And Silverlight 3 also adds support for Windows Touch on Windows 7,” said Windows Communications Manager on the Windows Client Communications Team, Brandon LeBlanc.

Silverlight 3 Beta for Developers is available for download here.
Microsoft has also posted a “Get Started” page on Silverlight 3.0 Beta here.



Tags: Microsoft, Silverlight

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