Software
ASP.NET MVC 2 RC is released today
Dec 17th
Release Candidate of ASP.NET MVC 2 is released today.
Brief Description
ASP.NET MVC 2 is a framework for developing highly testable and maintainable Web applications by leveraging the Model-View-Controller (MVC) pattern. The framework encourages developers to maintain a clear separation of concerns among the responsibilities of the application – the UI logic using the view, user-input handling using the controller, and the domain logic using the model. ASP.NET MVC applications are easily testable using techniques such as test-driven development (TDD).
The installation package includes templates and tools for Visual Studio 2008 SP 1 to increase productivity when writing ASP.NET MVC applications. For example, the Add View dialog box takes advantage of customizable code generation (T4) templates to generate a view based on a model object. The default project template allows the developer to automatically hook up a unit-test project that is associated with the ASP.NET MVC application.
Because the ASP.NET MVC framework is built on ASP.NET 3.5 SP 1, developers can take advantage of existing ASP.NET features like authentication and authorization, profile settings, localization, and so on.
Installation Notes
The ASP.NET MVC 2 Release Candidate for Visual Studio 2008 SP1 can be downloaded from the following page: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=157071
ASP.NET MVC 2 can be installed and can run side-by-side with ASP.NET MVC 1.0.
Note: Because Visual Studio 2008 and Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2 share a component of ASP.NET MVC 2, installing the ASP.NET MVC 2 Release Candidate release on a computer where Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2 is also installed is not supported.
Documentation
Documentation for ASP.NET MVC 2, which includes tutorials, technology overviews, code samples, and API reference, is available on the MSDN Web site. A good starting point is the ASP.NET Model View Controller (MVC) topic (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=159758).
Tutorials and other information about ASP.NET MVC are also available on the ASP.NET Web sitehttp://www.asp.net/mvc/.
What’s Next?
RTM of course! The RTM release of ASP.NET MVC will be included in the RTM release of Visual Studio 2010, which is slated for some time in March. The VS2008 version of ASP.NET MVC 2 might release earlier than that. We’re still working out those details.
Microsoft Office 2010 Beta is now Available for MSDN and TechNet Subscribers
Nov 18th
Microsoft Office 2010 Beta along with Office Web Applications are now available for MSDN and TechNet Subscribers.
TechNet Plus and MSDN subscribers can now download and evaluate Office 2010 Beta.
Public download for Office 2010 Beta will be available on November 18th 2009.
The most significant change in this Beta Build from the Technical Preview is the new installation procedure for test versions of Office 2010 SKUs, Upload Center, modified version of Backstage view and new refreshed icons for all Office products.
Both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Microsoft Office 2010 Beta are now available for download for MSDN and TechNet Subscribers.
Download Microsoft Office 2010 Beta from MSDN
Download Microsoft Office 2010 Beta from TechNet Plus
Visual Studio 2010 Express Beta 2 Editions are available now
Oct 22nd
Visual Studio 2010 Express Editions are available now for everyone to download.
The Visual Studio 2010 Express Beta 2 offers an exciting experience with the new integrated development environment, a new editor built in Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) and support for the new .NET Framework.
Download and get started today!
Express Versions
The Visual Studio Express family is unchanged from 2008 as it comes in four versions:
- Visual Web Developer 2010 Express (Online Installation Link)
- Visual Basic 2010 Express ( Online Installation Link)
- Visual C# 2010 Express (Online Installation Link)
- Visual C++ 2010 Express (Online Installation Link)
Offline Installation
You can also download an ISO image that contains all of the Express products (Total Size: 737MB)
For more details about Visual Studio 2010 Express Editions.
Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2 is now available for download for all MSDN subscribers
Oct 20th
Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2 is now available for download for all MSDN subscribers.
If you have MSDN access, go ahead and start downloading.
Here is a list of all the downloads that MSDN subscribers now have access to:
Opera 10 Beta 1 released today
Jun 3rd
Opera 10 Beta 1 released today.
Opera 10 beta (codenamed Peregrine) sports a surprising array of new features, a fresh look and feel, and enhanced speed and performance. Discover a better way to enjoy the Web by trying Opera 10 beta. It is completely free for Windows, Mac and Linux systems.
Opera 10 – http://www.opera.com/browser/next/
What’s new
Opera Turbo for fast browsing on slow connections
Ever felt a Web site was loading slowly? Do you think it will happen again? Think again: Opera Turbo is a compression technology that provides significant improvements in browsing speeds over limited-bandwidth connections like a crowded Wi-Fi in a cafe or browsing through your mobile phone while commuting.
New visual tabs and sleek design
Opera has always been the pioneer for how to deal with tabs in your browser. In Opera 10, we introduce a resizable tab bar. Drag the handle underneath the tabs to reveal thumbnails of your open Web pages. And, because great features should come in beautiful packages: world famous designer Jon Hicks created a whole new look for Opera 10.
Speed Dial your way
You asked for it! Customize your Speed Dial to fit your own needs. Hit the configure button and choose from 4 to 25 favorite Web sites for quick access every time you open a new tab. You can also add a custom background so you feel right at home.
Web integration
If you use a Web mail service as your default mail client, you can tell Opera 10 to do the same. Clicking on e-mail addresses or the Send by Mail in Opera will open the compose page from your Web mail service provider. The same is true with the Feed reader — you can now also add any RSS/atom feed into your favorite online feed reader from within Opera 10.
Resizable search field
Have a clearer view of what you are about to search by simply expanding the size of the search field — because many of life questions require more than two words of space.
40% faster engine and cutting-edge Web standards support
We optimized the new Opera Presto 2.2 engine in Opera 10 to be much faster on resource intensive pages such as Gmail and Facebook. In addition, with an Acid3 100/100 score, Web Fonts support, RGBA/HSLA color and SVG improvements, Opera 10 beta is ready for the next generation of Web applications. Learn more…
More new features in Opera 10
Inline spell-check
Write freely in your Facebook wall, blog or Web mail. Opera 10 beta underlines any misspelled words, so you can express yourself without reservation. By using the popular Hunspell dictionary format, you can be sure you’ll always have the most complete and updated list of all languages.
Auto-update
Opera 10 beta makes it easier than ever to stay up to date with the latest version. With Auto-Update you will be able to choose completely automatic updates or have the option of being notified when an update is ready to install. As always with Opera, it is your choice.
E-mail your way
Opera Mail can now send rich text messages including inline images, styled text, links, and/or custom HTML. You can also delete emails from your POP server after a determined amount of days, so can keep under control of your Web space.
Automated Crash Reporting
Opera is designed to restart and recover all your tabs if a crash occurs. But, now you can easily send us a crash report to help us continue to make Opera the most stable browser around.
Opera Dragonfly evolved
Our Web developer debugging tool is now even better, allowing you to edit the DOM and inspect HTTP headers.
Thanks for trying Opera 10 beta!
Please report any bugs. Or join the discussion with the community and the Desktop Team blog.
For more information, please read the Opera 10 beta detailed
changelog.
Opera 10 Beta 1 more details:
As always Opera desktop team have some new goodies for you, things you have not seen in previous snapshots.
Visual Tabs – oh shiny!
Opera desktop team have added thumbnails on the tabs themselves to make it even easier to find that Web site you were looking for. These visual tabs are currently folded away by default, but can easily be enabled by dragging the drag handle available just beneath the tab bar.
Double-clicking or middle-clicking the same drag handle will show/hide the tab thumbnails.
Speed Dial – more shiny!
Two popular requests for Speed Dial has been to be able to use more than 9 configured sites. We’ve also seen frequent requests to be able to have a customized Speed Dial background. Well, guess what?
In the bottom right of the Speed Dial you now have a new Configure Speed Dial button that opens a brand new configuration dialog.
With this new configuration dialog, you will be able to set a background picture that can be stretched, centered or tiled. It is also possible to set the number of sites that should be shown, ranging from 4 to 25.
More new features
If the last version of Opera you tested was 9.6 or the alpha from last year, here are some of the additional features in Opera 10 beta 1:
- Opera Turbo
- Automatic updates
- Crash logging
- Inline spelling checker
- 100/100 and pixel-perfect on the Acid3 test
- Significantly improved performance, particularly on CSS/HTML rendering
- Opera Mail HTML Compose support
- … and much more!
This is just some of the new features we have included in the beta and we urge you to read the complete change logs available from http://www.opera.com/docs/changelogs/ for all the details.
Changes since the last snapshot
Unix support
On the Linux/Unix front, we are discontinuing support for builds made with gcc 2.95. Also, Sparc Solaris builds are now made on Solaris 10 (with gcc 3) – they should run on Solaris 9 as well. If these changes affect you, we’d love to hear your feedback.
Skinning improvements
- [DSK-253666] “new tab” button is too tall in multi-line setup
- Partial [DSK-253753] Closed tabs icon on the right: When set to “text only”, the text is nearly unreadable (partially black on black), and touches the right part of the screen)
- [DSK-253759] Cancel button in mail panel way to unobtrusive
- [DSK-253818] Locked tabs change size when being hovered
- Fix for highlight of head and tail bar images
- Fixes for the head and tail gaps in Windows Native skin
- Fixes for pagebar head and tail icons in Windows Native skin
- Opacity changes to Speed Dial on standard skin
- New skin sections: “Pagebar Thumbnail Head Skin”, “Pagebar Thumbnail Tail Skin”, “Pagebar Thumbnail Floating Skin”, “Pagebar Thumbnail Head Button Skin”, “Pagebar Thumbnail Tail Button Skin”, “Pagebar Thumbnail Floating Button Skin”
- Fix for attention states on tabs
- Updated smilies. They are now more smiley.
- Tweaks to borders on addressbar and splitter to be consistent color
- Tweaks to dialogs
- Revised panel icons and buttons
- Revised icons for mail toolbar
User Interface
- [DSK-194184] Can’t find ’show Speed Dial at startup’ option)
- [DSK-253774] Crash in action handling
- [DSK-226623] Ctrl+Ins doesn’t copy outside of edit fields
- [DSK-253386] Crash when clicking help in startup dialog
- [DSK-253202] Replace ‘Language’ with ‘Dictionary’ in dictionary download wizard
- [DSK-253550] Turbo notification is cropped if the turbo icon is placed on the right of the window
- Removing obsolete ini-entry “view hotlist”
- [DSK-253731] Opens broken Compose Message view when creating new account
Core
- [CORE-21309] Full language names in spell check context menu
- [CORE-21052] XSLT: Using keys in match expressions causes crash
- [DSK-253743] Operator cache deleted when Opera starts
- [DSK-251805] Hang when doubleclicking text while flash is running
- [DSK-253773] Plug-in crash
Windows
- [DSK-253102] Classic installer can’t be used to install Opera on a limited account or Windows Vista with admin account
- [DSK-253374] Crashes on download of file when ‘Save File’ dialog pops up.
- [DSK-253884] “Debug: Elevated updater” dialog when autoupdating
- [DSK-253888] Can’t autoupdate Opera on Windows Vista
Mac
- [DSK-252555] Opera Crashes on Startup on PowerPC
- Correcting issue on Mac Pagebar
Unix
- [DSK-253567] Crashes on Solaris
- [DSK-253761] Crash in Plug-in manager
Download
Last but not least – go download the Beta!
