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Exploring the Silverlight 2.0 "go-live" license

I glossed over this during the first read but someone pointed it out to me and while I haven't seen anyone else mention it, I think it's very significant. In Scott's post on Silverlight 2.
Written by Ryan Stewart, Contributor

I glossed over this during the first read but someone pointed it out to me and while I haven't seen anyone else mention it, I think it's very significant. In Scott's post on Silverlight 2.0 he says this:

This Beta will support a Go-Live license that enables developers to begin building and deploying Silverlight 2.0 applications.

Up to now, deploying something on 1.1 has been against the EULA, but when the beta of Silverlight 2.0 ships you'll be able to put any of those applications into production and start to take advantage of the new Siverlight features right away. Microsoft did this with Atlas and IIS 7.0. So what are the specifics?

I asked a Microsoft PR person for some additional info on the Go-Live license and was told that they weren't making any announcements about it right now. I'm not sure I'd be the one they tell about that kind of thing anyway, but there is a copy of the IIS7 Go-Live license that mentions some of the restrictions/expectations.

Because IIS is a server and not just a runtime, I'm not sure if that means anything for Silverlight 2.0 and what to expect from the Go-Live licenses. Do you think there could be usage restrictions on a Silverlight 2.0 deployment? I also wonder what this means in terms of API changes. Will the Go-Live license mean that API changes will be minimal? I don't know how much extra deployment there was in IIS 7 and Atlas with the Go-Live licenses, so if anyone has any info, leave it in the comments. Clearly, especially for Silverlight, penetration numbers will play a part in deciding when to release an application but the interest level is high so the Go-Live license may mean more applications out in the wild for Silverlight 2.0.

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