New Avalon version. New Avalon version: If you've got an MSDN subscription, then there's a new “Community Technology Preview” version available. MSDN also has a new introductory article
open to all, where they distinguish between the Avalon runtimes (both
native Longhorn and the varying backports to XP and such), the Avalon
framework (the authoring process of specifying components and
extensions and all), and the XAML markup language which describes a
project's appearance and behavior. This new release does run on Windows
XP, although as CNET describes the behavior will change when Longhorn-style graphics drivers are not available. In bloggage, Tim Sneath distinguishes between the graphics sybsystem, the XML language, and the Aero set of user interface conventions (similar to Apple's Aqua or Macromedia's Halo,
with the goal being to simplify the enduser experience by increasing
detail to interface conventions). Anyway, if you're tracking
development in XML-based UIs, then today's release seems an important
one to get on-the-radar. [JD on MX]