Mary Jo, think about this you no doubt were at the Mix 08 Keynote. They mentioned Silverlight 2.0 and the Olympics in the same sentence (and same press releases).. Does it make sense they'd want people to download a beta to watch Olympic video coverage online?
Smart thinking says they'll have 2.0 done by the Olympics time frame.. We all know what the Olympics are scheduled for date-wise..
This is not news, but more common sense..
Microsoft officials have been (mostly) careful about talking about their Silverlight 2.0 release schedule.
(I say “mostly” because one Microsoft official told me at the Mix ‘08 conference last month that the Redmondians were planning to deliver the final Silverlight 2.0 release this coming fall.)
Earlier this week, a Microsoft blogger published what he claimed is the company’s internal schedule for Silverlight 2.0, Microsoft’s next version of its Adobe Flash competitor.
Microsoft blogger Ashish Thapliyal blogged on April 3 that Microsoft is targetting “late summer” for the final release of Silverlight 2.0. Here’s the rest of the “rough” timeline, according to Thapliyal:
- Silverlight 2.0 Beta 1 (Q1CY08 with limited (non commercial) Go-Live) — this was released at Mix ‘08 in early March
- Silverlight 2.0 Beta 2 (Q2CY08 with Go-Live)
- Silverlight 2.0 RTM (Summer 2008) – Exact timing TBD
- Silverlight v.next – We are working on a v.Next plan and have nothing to announce at this time
- Silverlight for mobile – No date available
(Microsoft has said it will release Silverlight 1.0 on Windows Mobile 6.0 phones in the second quarter of this year, but hasn’t released any timing information on its Silverlight 2.0 for Mobile release that I’ve seen.)
Bottom line: By late summer or sometime this fall, Microsoft should be releasing the final Silverlight 2.0 code, if it holds to its current timetable.
(Thanks to Ars Technica for the pointer to Thapliyal’s blog post.)
