So if you're a software developer and haven't been living under a rock all this week, by now you've probably read about the beta release of .NET 3.5 SP1. If not, read about it here on ScottGu's blog or here on BradA's.

I'm not a big fan of the naming conventions here. I still believe that .NET 3.5 should have been 4.0, which would make this next release version 5.0. Both 3.5 and 3.5 SP1 introduce enough new stuff to warrant a full version bump - particularly compared with the change from 2.0 to 3.0.

Anyway, one of the most exciting announcements for me was around client deployment in .NET 3.5 SP1.

First, Microsoft are introducing a cut-down "Client Profile" framework deployment, which brings the entire framework back to about 26MB. It does this by excluding all the "server" bits - ASP.NET, Enterprise Services etc. This will make that initial installation of the framework on XP much smoother.

Second, it seems that we will finally be able to deploy an application using ClickOnce without having to digitally sign it. For freeware developers like me, this is a big deal. I mean, I was able to generate a certificate for Mad Props from the command line, but why bother? It's not like that certificate has any real meaning. Anybody installing Comicster, for example, won't be too worried about whether the developer has been blessed by Verisign or somesuch - they'll just want to install the app and start playing. So I'm really looking forward to checking this change out.

Oh, and off the topic of deployment for a moment - they're also introducing a WebBrowser control for WPF! That means that my WPF version of Comicster (which I'm sure will see the light of day at some point) will be able to use the same (HTML-based) skinning system as the current version! That's good news for anybody who has developed their own Comicster skin.

I won't be downloading the beta of 3.5 SP1 since I don't really have a "play" machine that I can risk beta stuff on, but I'll be first in line when it's finally released. Bravo!