First I’ve read loads of posts and sites that recommend going to http://silverlight.net/GetStarted/ to get started but I do not have visual studio and I’m not going to purchase it just to ‘maybe’ learn some silverlight that I’m not going to be able to use for a little while.
The reason being that I’ve already installed visual studio and all the other things required during a quiet period of work, then another project came up and by the time I got back to thinking about silverlight the trial period has finished.
I have not done C# or XAML (mainly Java, AS3 & MXML, hence the lack of MS tools) but I’d like to look into silverlight when I’m quiet to create some test projects and to determine where I can use it if anywhere. Is there a toolset that will let me learn and use all that is required without purchasing the software (perhaps it would have a watermark like the flex datacharts used to have, unless you purchased them, maybe an eclipse plugin – although I imagine I’m being a bit optimistic here).
If there isn’t such a thing then perhaps MS should look into this, Adobe recently let anyone unemployed/students etc to get flexbuilder for free to increase its uptake. That would be great is MS did something similar.
You can download Blend preview 3 and visual studio 2010 for free and use it. You have the tools and knowledge now 😉
Check out Bizspark too.