According to some post on the web, it seems that visual studio 2008 sp1 is out. Biggest noticable change (for me) is that VS2008 Express received the ability to build Web project and class library which make it possible to build Silverlight 2.0 applications with Express. Yeah.

UPDATE: Now that silverlight 2 beta has arrived, I'm feeling a lot better. 

It seems that things are moving faster than I've expected. There has only been an alpha release of Silverlight 1.1, but since it is becoming bigger and bigger the branding people at Microsoft have decided that it is such a huge step forward they've rebranded it to SilverLight 2.0: 

...We now have a extensible control framework, two-way data binding, templates, styles, all the standard controls (TextBox, ScrollBar, CheckBox, RadioButton etc.), multiple layout containers (Grid, StackPanel, Canvas). In short, if you're familiar with WPF today, you'll be right at home with Silverlight 2.0.

With regards to the Rich Internet Application stuff, here's an interesting quote from the article on Tim Sneath's blog:

Moving forward, if you want to build a rich Internet application, Silverlight should absolutely be at the top of your list for consideration. No other platform will offer such a rich UI framework, and all the data templates and styling capabilities, coupled with the power of the .NET Framework and base class libraries, along with an easy migration path to a full unrestricted Windows desktop solution.

I'd better get up to speed with WPF...

Amidst all excitement on the new silverlight 1.0 service release, I saw something that interested me more than the update itself. Check out this quote:

our team has been cranking on for Silverlight v1.1 (controls, databinding, layout, templates, styling and a package based app model, phew!)

This of course means that we'll be getting a great full featured set when SilverLight 1.1 beta will be released. I am so excited about this next version! What we'll be getting looks cool:

• Controls: We definitely needed controls in 1.1. I have worked on some of my own layout controls and that is a lot of work. I hope they release these controls really soon.
• Databinding: This will of course be much better than doing everything in codebehind
• Layout: This one in combination with the new control set: I'm lovin' it.
• Templates: While trying to build my own controls I was trying to find a solution for templates. Apparently, the silverlight team is way ahead of me. Go! go!
• A package based app model. I have no idea what that'll accomplish.

Sadly enough, when I attended the TechEd Barcelona beginnen november this year, I have not heard one single person talk about these upcoming additions to silverlight. This is actually the first word I hear from the team about future plans with 1.1. So, in one sentence: Please give us another 1.1 alpha! (a beta would be better of course).

Edit: More big news: Visual Studio 2008 has been released. Please be aware that the release notes tell you that the SilverLight tools are not yet updated to work with the release, so if you need to work on SilverLight, you'll have to stick to VS2008 Beta 2 and have a little patience until the SilverLight tools are updated.