Microsoft looking for a Silverlight bullet
LAS VEGAS--Microsoft is looking to position its Silverlight Web technology as the coolest kid in school--one that is both popular and gets along with everyone.
The Hard Rock Cafe arrived at Mix 08 to show how it is using Silverlight to show its 70,000 pieces of rock and roll history online.
(Credit: Dan Farber/CNET News.com)At the Mix '08 show here, the company talked about its Mac, Linux, and mobile-phone compatibility and brought out customers like Hard Rock Cafe, NBC, and AOL to talk about how they are using the technology. It also showed Silverlight running on the newest compatible device--Nokia's smartphones.
Microsoft's Scott Guthrie also alluded to support for Apple's iPhone, saying Microsoft wants Silverlight running on "anything that has an SDK (software development kit)."
In the Hard Rock Cafe example, the restaurant and hotel chain used the technology to showcase its massive, 70,000-piece collection of rock artifacts. "This is 2 billion pixels," said a representative of the company who built the site for the Hard Rock.
AOL showed off a new version of AOL Mail, while NBC touted its plans to use Silverlight to bring more than 2,200 hours of video both live and on-demand.
The Hard Rock Cafe catalogued over 2 billion pixels' worth of images as it took its rock gear collection online with Silverlight.
(Credit: Dan Farber/CNET News.com)It's all part of Microsoft's aggressive pitch to Web developers, a clear acknowledgment that Microsoft faces a tough battle to win the hearts and minds of those who build Web sites and applications.
"I know today you have many amazing technology choices," Ray Ozzie said in his introductory comments. "But I'd like you to bet on us because I think together we can create extraordinary experiences.
Scott Guthrie, general manager in Microsoft's Developer Division, addresses the crowd at Mix '08.
(Credit: Dan Farber/CNET News.com)
During her years at CNET News, Ina Fried has changed beats several times, changed genders once, and covered both of the Pirates of Silicon Valley. These days, most of her attention is focused on Microsoft. E-mail Ina. 
I know a lot of people make their living off their MS certifications in
programming and IT functions. And I know MS depends on them to
keep purchasing their products, so the pleas to 'bet on us'.
But does anyone really TRUST Microsoft???
holding pattern as Flash but without near ubiquitous support.
Flash that is MS-based on any machine. They can spoon feed it to
their MS cronies if they want, but no takers here. I won't develop in
it, nor will I risk it messing up my system as a plug-in. MS needs to
prove itself first. They cannot even get their operating system
stable and fast, and they want to add more bloat to it?
Remember that?
It was a way for big companies to get one over everyone else.
While everyone else used HTML, big companies could have a Microsoft channel.
All this stuff could move around the page, blink, ans wink.
Of course it failed miserably because the bulk of web sites use standard stuff.
So will Microsoft Channels 2.0 take off?
I hope not. The last thing the Web wants is to rely on Microsoft for tech.
The Web is the best platform out there because it has encouraged developers to design all manner of sites and services using open and free standards.
Microsoft are not an open and standards company, so I for one will not develop using Silverlight, simply because Microsoft is not good the for Web and there is already great tech solutions available that are now a standard part of the Web.
I don't think anybody will be unhappy if you refuse to use Silverlight. If you think there are already 'great tech solutions available that are now a standard part of the Web' that compete with Silverlight, you're clearly not a Web Developer in the first place.
As much as you might complain about MS, remember MS is at it's core a (whole) bunch of hard core programmers who love putting things together. Period. MS exists because they are providing something a lot of people want. That said Silverlight is a step in the right direction for the web in general. HTML is **** and flash is a hacked together first stab at a good idea. Silverlight plugin is 4megs. They've even gone out of their way to develop a linux version.. for all you ms haters. The MS you hate didn't build silverlight, a bunch of AWESOME, commited, accomplished, cool developers did. And it is killer.
That's what people don't like, its not actually Silverlight, its the dark shadow standing behind it...
Want proof?
Look at its alleged core product - Windows.
The only version of Windows that didn't ship as a horror that took years and dozens of service packs to stabilize was Win2000 - which was designed by a completely non-MSFT team led by an old DEC guy. The kernel of that OS is still working today in XP.
Vista is a complete and utter disaster, panned by every independent reviewer as a criminally inept piece of work. Users are reporting everywhere that it's a horror.
Silverlight is another attempt to superset the Web and impose MSFT taxes on the world.
The EU should just indict MSFT for crimes against humanity.
everything they can to show how they are playing fair, and tout
just how many platforms Silverlight works on.
So let's think this through. Silverlight becomes a smashing
success and thus the defacto standard that every web developer
settles on.
It won't be long before Microsoft starts updating the Windows
version first followed by the OS X and Linux versions a few
months later.
After the OS X and Linux users find slower updates, we start
hearing how certain functions only work on Internet Explorer
now and Firefox has to wait for an update.
Later on Microsoft freezes development of Silverlight for OS X
and Linux and really starts throwing obstacles in the path of
Firefox and other non-Internet Explorer browsers.
All of a sudden you discover that to really enjoy and use the web
you have to be running Windows and Internet Explorer.
It's Microsoft's history and methodology. They place nice until
they set the standard, then all of a sudden nothing works with
the standard but Microsoft products.
No thank you Microsoft, not this time!
Wait....Does that count?
This is a good product that I plan on deveoping in.
- regardless of how good it is
- by The_Decider March 7, 2008 12:35 PM PST
- It has to be MS supported multi-browser AND multi-platform.
- Like this Reply to this comment
-
(25 Comments)Otherwise, no matter how technically better it is than Flash it is going nowhere.