Silverlight 3 rears its head at Mix

Pieces of the new software have started to pop up on Microsoft's developer sites. A beta version of the would-be Flash rival is expected to be shown later Wednesday.

by Ina Fried

March 18, 2009 8:33 AM PDT

LAS VEGAS--Silverlight 3 just couldn't wait to make its appearance here in Vegas.

Microsoft is expected to demonstrate the software later on Wednesday, but pieces of the beta code have already started to make their way on to Microsoft's developer site. As noted by Ars Technica and others, the documentation for Silverlight 3 beta and other supporting bits of code are available on MSDN.

The new version of Microsoft's would-be rival to Adobe's Flash is expected to be a focal point of the first-day keynote here at Microsoft's Mix conference.

I'll be covering the morning keynote speeches from Scott Guthrie and Bill Buxton, and will likely have more to say on Silverlight 3 in just a little bit.