Has Microsoft Extinguished Silverlight?
from the dying-embers dept
Remember Silverlight? That was Microsoft's attempt to take on Adobe Flash. There was plenty of attention paid to it when it launched, but it faded off the map pretty quickly, and that slow fade has only continued to the point that some are speculating that it's now dead. While not the strongest source, an anonymous comment in a forum devoted to Microsoft employees talking about Microsoft has noted that his team was told to stop using Silverlight and focus on HTML 5. It really is quite stunning how little traction Silverlight got over the past few years, and it seems like it certainly could be in Microsoft's best interests to give up the ghost on it.
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Filed Under: html 5, silverlight
Companies: microsoft
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An alternative to flash WAS a good idea. Activex sucks! It's just that HTML5 killed the demand.
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If they did kill it...
I have to say, though, it seems a bit early for them to be killing it off already.
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Re: If they did kill it...
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silverlight
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Re: silverlight
The innovations are moving WAY too fast for Microsoft to continue to play catch up. The problems lies a the CEO level.
I remember when Ballmer used to ridicule running applications on a browser and now he is playing catch up. I remember when Ballmer ridiculed running a browser on a phone. Now he is playing catch up. etc, etc.
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Re: silverlight
So No, silverlight isn't dead(yet) but is being reduced to a development platform for W7M.(That's the Official MS tweet)
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Definatly not dead
I think it may be that they are looking at using it less as a wrapper for video.
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silverlight dead?
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Silverlight Rocks!
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Re: Silverlight Rocks!
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New version of .NET, tons of silverlight enhancements (probably more than any other part of .NET
New tool for creating Silverlight app's (lightswitch) released as beta...hmm yesterday?
Then you post as "news" some comment that MS are dumping Silverlight by an anonymous poster as news?
No doubt, in the wider web Silverlight is not doing well as MS would like, but within company’s where it is more about creating business applications instead of flashy animations/games it is rapidly and steadily gaining traction and for good reason as it is a lot better than flash for that type of stuff
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I use nothing but OSS on my Linux box, which I have not had any problems with viruses, malware, rootkits etc... How does your commercial MS box handle those problems?
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tracker1 is either a troll, or hasn't used an app since 1995.
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Yeah, MS would never dump Silverlight because it "Plays For Sure".
Oh, wait...
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Silverlight is being used for Bing Maps, on the Azure platform, Windows Phone 7, Netflix... there's speculation that Windows 8's app store will favor Silverlight for rapid development and sandboxing.
Since the post was anonymous... we can only speculate on what department "alex__" works in, or if he/she is even a Microsoft employee. BUT, if I was Microsoft, and I was wanting to get more people using my web-based services, I would probably do the same thing and focus on HTML5/Javascript -- How many mobile phones support Flash and/or Silverlight?
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Most Neflix streaming is done with something else.
...and Flash is used for everything else.
On the one hand, it actually supports platforms other than Windows. On the other, Adobe treats those other platforms like redheaded stepchildren.
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It works.
It's installed with your windows updates, kept up to date with your windows updates, doesn't crash a hell of a lot (FAR more frequenly than flash, for me) and does a lot of things. Far more than just video.
It's being ported to other operating systems (even if not necessarily as actual Silverlight) and has a heavy following in many places.
For a Microsoft product, it has a hell of a lot going for it, people love to develop with it, and some big companies (again, Netflix) are picking it up as their preferred delivery platform.
Anyway.. glad to see that someone else out there sees what is really going on with silverlight. :)
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yet again m$.
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Re: yet again m$.
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terrible journalism
WPF / Silverlight is the hottest thing in New York. Loads of big banks / trading houses are converting / building apps on this platform.
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You hear that NetFlix?!!?!
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As a Flash Platform Developer...
As a [moderately prominent] Flash Platform developer, let me assure you that Silverlight is considered a viable platform for building Rich Internet Applications. Many "Flex/Flash" shops have also picked up Silverlight projects. I expect the platform will continue to become more prominent over time as penetration grows. Didn't Microsoft rush through four versions of the player very quickly?
I'd hardly say Silverlight is quietly dying.
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Microsoft says no to license DRM to Novell so no netflix for Linux users
crash prone
2nd class citizen in silverlights land
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I personally avoid sites that require silverlight or IE.
Probably why I am virus free! >:)
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Silverlight is a great way of having a zero-touch deploy mechanism for applications.
It may not gain universal acceptance for general websites like flash has but I don't think that's too important. In a large corporation where applications can be deployed with the minimum of configuration, SL has a lot to offer.
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I get the feeling the death will be slow and painful.
HTML 5 can't get here fast enough, and neither can the 12 add-ons which will allow people to convert a stream to a download.
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Re: I get the feeling the death will be slow and painful.
That said, there is a lot more to Flash and Silverlight than just video streaming. Even if the HTML5 Video tag dominates on-line video (which I suspect is likely to happen eventually) it is unlikely that would be the end of the need for Flash or Silverlight.
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There are thousands of .NET developers working on internal corporate apps that know WinForms. Some also know WPF. If your boss comes to you and says he needs a web deployed zero-install application to meet a business need and it needs to run on Windows desktop and a few Macs, then what do you think would be a better solution? An HTML4/5 with crappy Ajax and tougher to debug client-side javascript or a robust .NET based environment with great debugging capabilities and a great toolset?
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It was too limited
When MS launched silverlight it was defective right from the start because it was limited whereas Adobe can be installed on just about any machine. IMO I think that MS didn't have the good faith that Adobe had either. People were hesitant to be tied to the behemoth and were likely waiting for critical adoption before taking the plunge. Anyway I'll be happy to see it go. I hope Netflix drops it and decides to add Linux support soon.
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HTML5 will not replace Flash nor Silverlight
The notion that HTML5 will replace Flash (or Silverlight) is like saying HTML5 will replace JPGs.
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Re: HTML5 will not replace Flash nor Silverlight
Where silverlight failed was by not being cross compatible on every browser, every machine on the internet. And by not offering enough of a differentiator from Flash to begin with. Why switch?
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Hypocritical!
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http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100823/04030810730.shtml
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Shortsighted...
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HTML5 to arrive in 2012
(I'm being facetious)
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Windows Phone 7 is silverlight, and is releasing this fall.
Netflix uses silverlight because it doesn't have the memory leaks of flash.
Personally I am all for HTML 5, but that won't kill silverlight. There is too much that can be done in Silverlight that cannot be done in HTML 5. Maybe this will change in HTML 6.
Bottom line, if you believe this dribble, you are a sucker.
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Today's web development tends to get very messy, dealing with the mismatch of server-side languages communicating with client-side languages across a non-abstracted HTTP protocol that are interacting with HTML and CSS markup. It gets especially messy in this day and age with the use (and abuse) of AJAX in web applications as we attempt to further bend HTML to be more dynamic. Many web frameworks exist for the single purpose of abstracting the various common hacks away from the developer- one specific example is the browser history "fix" for AJAX applications, where a hidden embedded iframe is used with hash updates to track history, simply to ensure the back button will still "work". The typical web application, even with HTML5, will still have these fundamental problems, where developers need to be experts in many disciplines, and have to deal with error-prone, fragile, inconsistent and in many cases, just plain hacky code. While HTML5 does add some very innovative enhancements, the HTML standard in general fails to address these fundamental issues as it continues to extend this technology. The most significant consequence of this is the increased development time/effort which makes it difficult to get a site/application to market.
Silverlight addresses these issues, bringing Server-Client development both onto the same platform and providing better consistency and design throughout a typical web application. Beyond that, it aims to better separate design concerns from functionality with Expression Blend tools/XAML. Now this does come at an expense- you must have the Silverlight plugin installed to view the content, and something no one has mentioned, you can kiss any SEO goodbye if you're using it on an internet website. The best payoff is the huge increase you get in productivity and turnaround time- my observation is that you can accomplish the same thing in Silverlight in nearly 1/4 of the time it takes to build a traditional web application with the same amount of developers.
This brings me to my conclusion. Both technologies will continue to exist, because they both serve different purposes. HTML5 will thrive in the internet world where SEO is critical, where it is unfortunately the current practice for web developers to be experts in all of these disciplines, and there are still many experts (myself included) willing to do the work. And it will likely continue to improve and continue to head in the right direction... but it's not quite there yet, particularly when it comes to building web "applications".
I believe Silverlight shines as the resounding winner when it comes to developing internal/corporate systems/applications where SEO isn't a concern and it is more critical to have a rich experience, where it is critical to use a platform that promotes separation of concerns and ease of development practices (this is especially a concern when it comes to developing web "applications"), and especially where rapid development is key to getting software out to market.
That's my observation and two cents after having been in the web development world for nearly 10 years. And BTW, we're just finally starting to transition to Silverlight as our company begins to learn the benefits of it, and most of us who have been exposed to it understand these trade-offs, and will continue to use BOTH technologies.
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Compare www.StatOWL.COM's Silverlight, Flash & Webstandards news so you guys can finally stop deluding yourselves, will ya!?!
BTW.: The only good thing about HTML5 is SVG which is definietly one of the best standards defined ever.
And nice Adobe dropped it as soon as the
We should all hope that Silverlight gains it's momentum as soon as possible so then that retarded JavaScript and ActionScript kindergarden coding and the neccessity of hacking the unconform implementations of it, finally can come to an end.
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Although the initial adoption of Silverlight was slow, I believe Silverlight is quickly gaining traction and we will begin seeing it throughout the internet sooner than we all think. It seems to have matured quite a bit since it's inception, and Microsoft has also recently decided to toss WPF in favor of Silverlight which will only help speed up it's progression.
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Silverlight
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I WAS going to migrate our app, but not now
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Silverlight is dead on desktops
Bob Muglia, Microsoft’s SVP of the Server and Tools Business :“Our strategy has shifted,”
“Silverlight is our development platform for Windows Phone,”
He went on to say:
“HTML is the only true cross platform solution for everything, including (Apple’s) iOS platform,” Muglia
That's why IE9 is pushing to be fully HTML5 capable. Even NBC dropped silverlight and netflix is creating it's own delivery app based upon x.264
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body was burned
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HTML5
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