Visual Studio 2010 and Silverlight 4 are here! Check out a local launch event near you.
The Launches
Visual Studio 2010
Wow – what a week it has been for .NET Developers! On Monday April 12th, Visual Studio 2010 officially launched at the DevConnections conference in Las Vegas. For those that missed it you can watch the entire Launch Event here. Right after the event Visual Studio 2010 immediately became available the bits became available for download. You can grab them now via MSDN Subscriber Downloads.
There are a ton of great posts out there already that cover what you need to know about this newest release of Visual Studio.
Three must-see sites I think you should check out would be:
- Channel 9’s Visual Studio 2010 New Feature Lists
- MSDN’s Visual Studio 2010 Featured Content Sessions
- Scott Hanselman’s Launch Guide
Express Versions
Just like prior releases of Visual Studio you can also download completely free versions of VS2010 on the Express site. Don’t be fooled by the price, these versions are far from being watered down and in fact are all you need today to begin Silverlight and Windows Phone 7 development!
Silverlight 4
The following day was all about Silverlight 4 and included a list of impressive demos and features. If you missed it you can watch the entire launch again as well as the Channel9 interviews. A few days later on Thursday, April 15th, the Silverlight 4 bits went live and are now available for download as well. Be sure to grab the updated versions of both the Silverlight ToolKit and the Silverlight Facebook Client too.
Any Gotchas?
Silverlight 4 Developers Tools are RC
The Silverlight 4 runtime is final the developer tools themselves are listed as RC. They will work fine however and are fully supported by Microsoft. You can read more details about this on Tim’s blog here.
Visual Studio 2010 RTM will not work with Windows Phone 7 Emulator
The emulator is being updated so for those of you who are writing Windows Phone 7 applications you should hold off on upgrading to the RTM release for a bit. You can get full details about this on Charlie’s blog here and also sign up to be notified of when the tools are ready.
Upcoming Local Launch Events
I am also happy to announce we are going to have four launch events in our very own Mid-Atlantic States region starting in May!
The May locations are considered the Official 2010 Launches and will cover all the new 2010 product releases, not just Visual Studio. The June events will be recaps of the Launch and focus specifically on Visual Studio 2010, Windows Phone 7 and Silverlight 4.
You can visit the registration links and get more details here:
| City | Date | Type | Register |
|---|---|---|---|
| Washington, DC | May 18, 2010 | 2010 Launch | Register |
| Philadelphia, PA | May 27, 2010 | 2010 Launch | Register |
| Pittsburgh, PA | June 2, 2010 | Roadshow | Register |
| Baltimore, MD | June 4, 2010 | Roadshow | Register |
I have been fortunate enough that I will be at all four events in the coming weeks. So if we haven’t met in person yet let’s use this time to get introduced. See you on the road!
-Dave
