Microsoft debuts Silverlight update

Microsoft is launching a revamped test version of its Silverlight software that is designed to broaden the appeal of the company's answer to Adobe Systems' Flash.

Chairman Bill Gates was set to announce Silverlight 2 beta 2 on Tuesday morning at Microsoft's TechEd conference in Orlando, Fla. Gates was also slated to unveil a partnership with IBM to make it easier to build DB2 database applications using Microsoft's tools, as well as updates to other Microsoft tools.

Bill Gates speaking in Redmond, Wash. last month.

(Credit: Ina Fried/CNET News.com)

The new release of Silverlight, which will be available for download on Tuesday, includes support for Microsoft's .Net Framework, the company's programming model for building Windows applications, which will likely make it more appealing to established Windows programmers, said Jonathan Perera, general manager of Microsoft's Application Platform Division.

"If Silverlight 1.0 was about what people could do on their Web sites, Silverlight 2.0 is about what people can do on their interactive applications," Perera said.

The initial release of Silverlight, a browser plug-in for rich interactive applications such as audio-video playback and animation, has yet to diminish the popularity of Flash, though the revamped release could fare better thanks to the .Net support. Microsoft estimates that there are about 4 million .Net developers worldwide.

Microsoft also debuted a technology preview of software code named Velocity that makes it easier to build Web applications that include an in-memory data cache, such as Web commerce applications. For programmers, Velocity can ease the burden of application memory management and other complex tasks, said Perera.

[The_Decider]

Another mistake from the always hilariously incompetent Microsoft. It might have a chance to succeed if MS would support it for all platforms, but their closed culture won't allow that. This is not a development tool but a tool to try and keep people locked in to their crappy OS. Moonlight doesn't count because, like mono, it will always be behind the curve.

[Super2online]

If you weren't so closed minded you could see that it is clearly already succeeding. Some of the most innovative sites I have seen so far have been created on Silverlight and it's very obviouse to me that best is yet to come.

[ninlar]

If you actually read the FAQ for the next version of SilverLight:
Silverlight will support all major browsers on both Mac OS X and on Windows. Particular care is being taken to account for differences in platform and browser capabilities to ensure a consistent experience including experiences on Firefox, Safari, and Internet Explorer. Microsoft will extend the support for Silverlight on Linux through a partnership with Novell.

[The_Decider]

ninlar, I will believe that when I see it. The Novell thing is moonlight and it doesn't count just like mono doesn't count. Super2Online: LOL Thanks for the laugh, it is nothing more then a me-too product even if the language implementation is better than what Flash uses. In 5 years, if Silverlight has taken 1% of the market from Flash it will be a miracle. Keep drinking the MS kool-aid, you are making Uncle Bill proud!

[krushyou]

Yeah, before you go on your anti-MS rant you should probably research the product you are bashing...

http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/development_tools/silverlight.html

it doesn't count? its working with MS on it and conjunction with Novell

[Ilgaz]

Uh, it is not the same Silverlight having .NET. It is silverlight 1.0 and also responsible for crashing Safari or any browser if user is adventurous enough to install the plugin nobody cares about.

[ckurowic]

To "krushyou": thank you very much for the link. I was unaware that it was available for Mac OS. I almost went into a MS rant too!

[Ilgaz]

That is "Silverlight 1.0", it has nothing to do with the .NET binding Silverlight 2.

[tech_heretic]

krushyou, to develop in Silverlight, you must do so on Windows. With Flash, you can develop on Windows or Mac. In addition, the last thing I want shoved down my throat is Microsoft's UI conventions as they conflict with the Mac's.

Ars Technica has a good multi-part article that indirectly illustrates why throwing a bunch of apps designed by Windows developers on everyone else is a bad thing...and why I don't want a .Net runtime polluting my system.

[jhoeforth]

Great link. Silverlight, even on its infancy, is really gaining momentum. Give it time and it will really be prevalent like Flash.

[Vegaman_Dan]

The Decider wrote: " I will believe that when I see it. " Well, there's the problem right there in a nutshell and I'm glad that you have acknowledged it. You are so blinded by your hatred of all things Microsoft that even when you attack a product that has their name on it, you don't see that *APPLE* is supporting it as well. Now if you open your eyes once in a while instead of just flaming all things MS, you might have noticed that. Unfortunately your bigotry and hatred have clouded your mind completely. But it's good to see that you're keeping up your reputation as an uninformed troll. We wouldn't want you to change in any way. :)

[YankeePoodle]

tech_heretic,

you can use Moonlight/Mono platform http://www.mono-project.com/Moonlight to develop on Linux or OS X environment. I am not sure if any one can develop Flash on Linux, actually Silverlight plays on equal if not more when it comes to platforms versus flash. It is a great technology, it may not kill flash but the kind of programmability it brings on to light-weight programms with stripped down CLR is amazing. You can do lot of cool stuff, even if it computationally intensive in silverlight. Before you judge things, give it atleast one neutral objective look.

[TinyIoda]

"krushyou, to develop in Silverlight, you must do so on Windows. "

No.. the best tools to develop silverlight are for windows... you can do it with any plain text editor anywhere...

where do you people come up with this stuff

[emersk]

During this morning's keynote, at 40 minutes 20 seconds, S. Somosegar, a senior VP of Silverlight development, states that the Silverlight Beta 2 will be available for download by the "end of this week". So I guess that means Sunday 6-8. Then large scale development of Silverlight sites can begin. If they could speed up development of Expression Blend 3 and WYSIWYG Silverlight tools in Visual Sudio then Silverlight market share in web site development would really grow quickly.

It is too bad there seems to be no commitment to support H.264 playback on Silverlight players. If you want to create a site that plays the millions of videos already out there on file sharing sites you are forced to transcode resulting in a lot of degradation when videos are of low quality video to start with.

[CedBrun]

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[benjaminstraight]

Cool