A few folks have asked me what I have been up to after wrapping up LINQ previews and V1. I have not been able to answer that question satisfactorily because what we were working on was non-public (well almost except the mention of now obsolete name "Alexandria" at PDC 2008).

Few other folks have wondered aloud if I was deaf to their feedback about the importance of multi-tier support in LINQ to SQL (and similar projects). I was not deaf but I couldn't answer that question satisfactorily either.

Now I can answer both by pointing to a real preview; not just blah blah.

Take a look at the .NET RIA Services March 2009 preview. It is intended to:

  1. Simplify n-tier development (and really show you a better way to get multi-tier story for your ORM objects - LINQ to SQL or EF or whatever)
  2. Support Rich Internet Application (RIA) development on Silverlight - there is great end-to-end story for validation, authentication, easy databinding etc.
  3. Extend your ASP.NET development experience. This is based on what you know and use already. There is even an ASP.NET DomainDataSource and templates for SEO there (and hopefully some AJAX stuff soon - fingers crossed).

Personally another satisfying thing is that, now I can answer your questions in a straightforward fashion without worrying about what I am allowed to say.

BTW, in the good tradition of the LINQ project, we also have a great walkthrough in the MSI and a good set of quick starts on the download page.

Don't forget to see Brad's and Nikhil's sessions at MIX - either live or after the fact.

Dinesh

P.S. (Thu 3/19 update): We also have some cool additional code for you. There is a new project template that missed the March 09 preview train by a hair - it makes authentication hookup really simple. Two sample apps make it easier for you to build good looking apps with real data hookup on the server-side. I would urge you to actually go through the walkthrough steps first and not use the newly posted, completed solution ;-)