OK, so see questions like this one and this one and the question I have is - does one have to use Expression Blend to do Silverlight development or can any of it be done with just Visual Studio? (2008, in this case)
I haven't gotten started using Silverlight yet and through my workplace's MSDN I can get Expression Blend without any issues, but for my side work, do I have to drop the $499 for Expression Blend 2? (I know there's a trial but I'm thinking beyond that)
Obviously I'm concerned that in order to get into Silverlight development there's a huge financial investment involved and I already own Visual Studio 2008 - is it possible to do development without Expression Blend or would that just be impossible?
You can do everything in Visual Studio. But then again you can do everything in Notepad as well... it all depends on how much the given tool will help you along in the process. Having Blend will be a great asset from a design point of view but wont really do much for you in terms of programming the application. Download the trial and see how it works... if it adds value and saves time then it's well worth the purchase.