Microsoft has unveiled an updated beta release of its Silverlight multimedia publishing software. Chairman Bill Gates announced the debut of Silverlight 2 beta 2 at Microsoft’s TechEd conference in Orlando on Tuesday. The utility, to be made available for public download by the end of the week, lets developers write Web-based applications using Microsoft’s .Net Framework. The company hopes the new beta’s added functionality will be another step toward luring programmers away from the long-dominant Adobe Flash software suite.
