You can create two different kinds of extensions using Feature Builder. A standard Feature Extension can contain tools, code, and a simple map - it will run on the Visual Studio Premium and Visual Studio Professional editions (in the final version of this tool). A more advanced extension, called an Ultimate Feature Extension, can contain everything a standard Feature Extension can contain, as well as rich modeling and visualization tools that can take advantage of the modeling platform inside the Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate edition (required). These tools can be used to provide a logical view of your target solution, and to visualize your existing code. This is the preferred type of extension to use if you intend to provide architectural guidance or share specific refactoring or pattern knowledge.

An introductory video (which includes a "hello world" example) is available on Channel 9: https://channel9.msdn.com/tags/FeatureBuilder .

Additional information and support will be available via the Visual Studio 2010 Architectural Discovery & Modeling Tools Forum  

An update to this power tool based on the RTM version of Visual Studio 2010 will be available after the RTM release.

BizTalk Server 2009 R2 was planned to be a focused release to deliver support for Windows Server 2008 R2, SQL Server 2008 R2 and Visual Studio 2010. Our original plan was to name the release as BizTalk Server 2009 R2 as aligning BizTalk releases to core server platform releases is very important for our customers. 

However, over the past year we got lot of feedback from our key customers and decided to incorporate few key asks from our customers in this release. Based on customer value we are delivering, and the positive feedback we are getting from our early adopter customers we feel the release has transitioned from minor release (BizTalk Server 2009 R2) to a major release (BizTalk Server 2010).

Following is list of key capabilities we have added to the release:

1. Enhanced trading partner management that will enable our customers to manage complex B2B relationships with ease
2. Increase productivity through enhanced BizTalk Mapper. These enhancements are critical in increasing productivity in both EAI and B2B solutions; and a favorite feature of our customers.
3. Enable secure data transfer across business partners with FTPS adapter
4. Updated adapters for SAP 7, Oracle eBusiness Suite 12.1, SharePoint 2010 and SQL Server 2008 R2
5. Improved and simplified management with updated System Center management pack
6. Simplified management through single dashboard which enables IT Pros to backup and restore BizTalk configuration
7. Enhanced performance tuning capabilities at Host and Host Instance level
8. Continued innovation in RFID Space with out of box event filtering and delivery of RFID events

In addition to all the great value the release provides, customers will benefit from support window being reset to 10 years (5 years mainstream and 5 years extended support). This highlights Microsoft’s long term commitment to BizTalk Server product.

We are on schedule to deliver BizTalk Server 2010 in later part of CY2010. This name change will not impact the RTM dates.

Tweet your comments and questions to @ch9live and we’ll ask them on your behalf live on the air.

WHAT: The Channel 9 crew will be broadcasting live, unscripted and 100% interactive from The Commons on Days 1 & 2 of MIX 2010 in Las Vegas.

WHY: Not everyone can make it to MIX10 in person and bump into Bill Buxton or Scott Guthrie for a quick chat in the corridor. Channel 9 Live provides those unable to attend with an opportunity to be a part of the MIX experience and converse directly with executives, presenters and technology leaders.

WHO: Joining us on stage will be Scott Guthrie, Joe Belfiore, Bill Buxton, Dean Hachamovich, Albert Shum, Doug Purdy, Erik Meijer and many more.

WHEN: The live stream begins immediately following the keynotes

• March 15 From 10:30AM PST to 5:30PM
• March 16 From 10:30AM PST to 5:30PM

WHERE: Same URL as the keynotes: http://live.visitmix.com

Once the keynotes end just keep watching; Channel 9 Live will begin streaming automatically

You can view the full schedule of sessions here: https://channel9.msdn.com/posts/NicFill/Channel-9-Live-at-MIX10--Who-What-Why-When-and-How/

HOW to participate: We’ll be accepting questions and interacting live via Twitter (@ch9live) as well as the Channel 9 Coffee House

We also unveiled a release candidate version of Silverlight 4 in anticipation of the full release, which will be available next month.

All of you will now be able to download the Silverlight 4 RC, the Windows Phone Developer Tools CTP, and Expression Blend 4 Beta to get ready for the future and begin developing high-performance, compelling mobile applications.

Features of Silverlight for Windows Phone

Silverlight for Windows Phone will support core Silverlight features while optimizing for capabilities specific to the Windows Phone 7 Series. Feature highlights include the following:

• Hardware-accelerated video with multi-codec digital rights management (DRM) and Internet Information Services Smooth Streaming support
• Vector and bitmap graphics with perspective 3-D
• Multi-touch support with Accelerometer, an intuitive control that responds to motion
• Deep Zoom support for rich reading experiences
• Camera and microphone support
• Notification Service for pushing information to the phone, regardless of whether or not an application is running
• Integration with the core Windows Phone 7 Series experience features such as hubs

New Features in the Silverlight 4 Release Candidate

Silverlight 4 delivers powerful features to application developers, bringing innovative platform capabilities to browser-based experiences. New features in the Silverlight 4 Release Candidate include:

• Silverlight 4 affirms its position as the natural choice for building business applications on the Web: Further Rich TextBox enhancements, graphics and printing enhancements plus networking enhancements.
• Silverlight 4 introduces additional capabilities that enable developers to create richer, more appealing, high-performance interactive and innovative media experiences:
• Official support of the Google Chrome browser
• Hardware acceleration for Deep Zoom
• Output protection support for protected video path to fully control the content from source to display
• Silverlight 4 extends out-of-browser capabilities pioneered in Silverlight 3 that enable Web sites to establish closer, more persistent relationships with customers without any additional runtime download or the need to write applications in a different way.

Resources:

You can get details of the new opportunities for both developers and designers on the Windows Phone 7 Series platform at  Windows Phone for Developers & Microsoft Visual Studio Express for Windows Phone

Press materials around these announcements can be accessed on Microsoft PressPass site at:

• Microsoft Outlines New Opportunities at MIX10 for Developers to Create Compelling Experiences
• Silverlight Press Kit

Learn more about the Expression Blend 4 Beta

Download the Silverlight 4 RC SDK and corresponding updates

Recently Bob Familiar had the pleasure of sitting down with Michael Iantosca, CEO of eDefine, Paul Hamnett, VP of Engineering at the Institute of Healthcare Improvement (IHI.org), and Kerri Sweeney, Director of Development at IHI, to learn about a new Silverlight based solution they have created for the healthcare quality industry called the Improvement Map.

This video includes an overview of IHI.org from Paul Hamnett and an in depth review of the application, the architecture and a demo from Kerri Sweeney and Michael Iantosca.

There is a case study that details IHI's Silverlight solution here and an architecture deep dive here.

To give you a quick brief, ASP.NET MVC is a free, fully-supported framework that enables developers to quickly build standards-based, SEO-friendly Web sites by offering complete control over the HTML and URLs. It also eases collaboration, development and management by enabling a clean separation of the functional areas and facilitating test driven development.

ASP.NET MVC 2 introduces extensible client side validation, enhanced model validation and asynchronous controllers and lots of other features that help developers build Web sites and applications faster.

Some of the benefits of ASP.NET MVC are:

• Helps developers build Web sites and applications faster by introducing extensible client side validation, enhanced model validation, asynchronous controllers, and several other key features
• Simplifies collaboration, development and management by enabling a clean separation of functional areas and facilitating test driven development

Is available for download at www.asp.net/mvc/download

If you would want to see some case studies on ASP.NET MVC, visit the following links:

•  Online Banking Solution Benefits after ASP.NET MVC Replaces Ruby on Rails, Linux
•  Developers See Faster Web Coding, Better Performance with Model-View-Controller

In one of my future posts soon, I will provide you with answers to the most common queries you would have around ASP.NET MVC, and set of resources you should refer to for understanding it completely and ramping up yourself.

What is Microsoft Tech·Ed India 2010 TOP ARCHITECT?

It is a contest based on your architectural skill. We give you a challenge - details on a system we'd like you to architect. In the allotted period you work out the architecture in line with the expected solution brief.

Your submissions would be judged based on the judging criteria and the top three candidates would be invited to Tech.Ed-India 2010 showdown to present their proposal in front of a live audience and a panel of judges. You match wits against your peers to see who can architect the best system to address the challenge … and, get ready to WIN BIG in the process.

You can find more details about the contest here: http://www.microsoftteched.in/toparchitect/default.aspx

Because you will return to your office with knowledge and expertise that only the three days at Tech.Ed-India, the largest technology conference globally this year – can offer. You will learn about today’s cutting-edge trends, helping make life easier for you at work. But the most important benefit of all just might be the networking opportunity that the forum will provide you … you can build personal connections with Microsoft experts and peers that will last far beyond the event.

For more information visit http://www.microsoftteched.in

Looking forward to seeing you at the Event of the Year…

Simple and straight answer to this questions is NO. 

If you try doing the same through various hacks / advises on various unofficial sites, you will certainly encounter major roadblocks while attempting the installation. Relying on any unofficial information to achieve the same will very likely expose your solutions to various issues, as well as possible violation of the software license.

Any documentation reference around the same on Official sites / blogs should be assumed as MOSS x64 intended for x64 platforms, and MOSS x86 intended for x86 platforms respectively.

We would strongly advise you to adhere to our Official  guidelines / recommendations here, regardless of the technical feasibility of the same.

Please ensure that you also advise your customers to use MOSS 2007 x64 for installation on x64 platforms only, as an official and recommended approach from Microsoft.

**Please Note: This information is not exclusively mentioned on any of the Microsoft Sites / Blogs AFAIK, as on the date of publishing this post

For Linux:

Moonlight is an open source implementation of SilverLight, and is primarily targeted for Linux and other Unix/X11 based operating systems. The purpose of this implementation is to allow Moonlight to run any SilverLight application without having to recompile that application.

Around Sep 2007, Microsoft and Novell announced a technical collaboration that includes access to Microsoft's test suites for SilverLight and the distribution of a Media Pack for Linux users that will contain licensed media codecs for video and audio.

Moonlight 2 was released December 17, 2009 and is available for the major Linux distributions, with support for Firefox, Konqueror, and Opera browsers.

Download the Moonlight plug-in from - http://www.mono-project.com/Moonlight.

Getting Started with Moonlight - http://www.mono-project.com/Moonlight#Getting_Started.

For Mac:

It is much simpler on Mac. Just navigate to any web site running SilverLight 3 application to automatically download the plug-in. Alternatively, you can download it here.

However, please keep in mind that SilverLight 3 works on Intel-based Mac systems, and not the PowerPC based Mac systems.