Silverlight 2 will be released on October 14, Silverlight is already installed in every fourth

Microsoft has announced the release of the final version of Silverlight 2, which will be available on October 14.
Key announcements:

• Every fourth Internet user has access to a computer with Silverlight installed, in some countries use reaches 50% ;
• The site NBCOlympics.com recorded 50 million unique users, 1.3 billion page views, 600 million minutes of watching a video, the average time a user has been on the site is 27 minutes ;
• You can develop applications for Silverlight 2 in Visual Studio 2008 , including the free Web Developer Express SP1 , as well as in the package for designers of Expression Studio 2 . In addition, plans have been announced for the development of a module for developing Silverlight 2 applications for Eclipse - the Soyatec project, the output is scheduled for the second half of 2009;
• The Silverlight Control Pack will be released (under the Microsoft Permissive License) along with the technical documentation of the XAML dictionary (under the Open Specification Promise)

The main technical features of Silverlight 2:

• .NET Framework Support with Rich Base Class Library : Compatible Subset of the .NET Framework Full Version
• Powerful built-in controls : include DataGrid, ListBox, Slider, ScrollViewer, Calendar controls and more.
• Support for advanced images and templates : it is now easier to create the right kind of applications
• Deep Zoom technology : provides unique interactivity and high-resolution image navigation
• Comprehensive networking support: support for using REST WS * / SOAP, POX, RSS, and standard HTTP services, allowing users to create applications that easily integrate with server systems
• Expanded language support. NET Framework : support for various programming languages, including: Visual Basic, C #, JavaScript, IronPython and IronRuby, which allows you to quickly navigate to developers who already own these languages
• Improved content protection : Silverlight DRM based on PlayReady content protection for Silverlight related environments
• Improved server scalability and expanded support for advertising media : support for new fast-loading features, better search engine optimization technologies, and next-generation embedded advertising
• Partner Ecosystem : Microsoft Visual Studio partners, among which ComponentOne, Infragistics and Telerik provide products that enhance the power of building Silverlight applications using Visual Studio.
• Cross-platform and cross-browser support : support for Mac, Windows and Linux in Firefox, Safari, Internet Explorer

The original is blogs.msdn.com/mikcher/archive/2008/10/13/silverlight-2-14-silverlight.aspx