Microsoft to take Silverlight offline eventually, says exec

There are a number of software projects that enable Web applications to run offline, including Adobe's AIR, Google Gears, and the Mozilla Foundation's Prism. What about Microsoft and its Silverlight browser plug-in?

Microsoft does not currently have specific plans to bring offline capabilities to Silverlight, but it's something it will eventually do, said John Case, general manager in Microsoft's developer division.

"It's something that we will want to do," Case said in an interview on Monday. "Eventually, customers will expect us to do it."

Silverlight is Microsoft's cross-platform plug-in for running media-rich applications in different browsers, including Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Apple's Safari.

Microsoft executives are expected to detail more enhancements to Silverlight at its Mix '08 conference in Las Vegas, which starts on Tuesday.

The company developed Silverlight as an alternative to Adobe's Flash Player, which is widely used for Web video and rich Internet application development.

Microsoft is trying to create a common development environment for Windows, Web applications, and its online Web services.

Until now, however, Microsoft executives have been quiet on the idea of bringing offline access to Silverlight, saying that its bigger priority is porting Silverlight to other platforms, including Linux and mobile devices.

Adobe last week released Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR) 1.0, a download and development platform for making Web applications behave more like desktop programs, including offline access. Google Gears, still in development, allows Web applications to store local data.

[krsd99]

OS support is still lacking.

One thing they are blatantly avoiding though is the lack of support they are building into Silverlight. Currently you need to have WinXP SP2(note that the sp is required), Vista, or Mac OS 10.4.8+ to run Silverlight. There are plans to support win2k with Silverlight 1.1, but that is it. So while as tech people we may have the tendency to keep up to date (or relatively so) there are a number of people out there that will not be able to run this on their systems. This would include anyone with a Win 95-ME system, or a linux system. They may make note of expanding support for other systems like linux, but I would guess that older win systems will be left in the cold on this one.

And while yes, there are advantages to updating os's and hardware, it also is a hard thing to justify for people who either only use their computers for basic web/email purposes, or whose systems will not support a newer OS, especially considering the not insignificant system requirements of Vista. This whole planned obsoletion that Microsoft has been pushing is one of the things that Macromedia avoided to the advantage of the Flash player.

Unfortunately Adobe seems to be taking the obsoletion tactic with their authoring software, but hopefully they will not follow suit with the player, or they may give Silverlight a considerably greater chance to supplant it.

http://www.microsoft.com/silverlight/resources/InstallationFiles.aspx?mode=sysreq

[dhavleak]

OS support is actually quite excellent.

Windows XP SP2, Vista, OS-X
(http://www.microsoft.com/silverlight/resources/InstallationFiles.aspx?mode=sysreq)

And Linux:
(http://www.mono-project.com/Moonlight)

The list of supported browsers is also quite impressive. From the amount of assistance the Moonlight project received from the Silverlight team, Opera and others too would easily be able to create plugins if Silverlight adoption is good.

Not sure what your point is about planned obsolesence. Win2k is a fringe case, and support for it is in the pipeline. You don't see Win95 support as an unreasonable request on your part?

[bsalus01]

is silverlight DOA?

no one uses it, meanwhile flash is ubiquitous. and firefox will have prism built in. and with google gears it isn't really hard in most cases to take your web app offline. and people who use their web apps won't care about downloading a simple browser plug-in.

if MS doesn't quickly improve things i predict their browser market share will drop below 50% within 5 years. they would probably start hemorrhaging money around then too. probably another 5 years of stagnation and they would have to cut out all the fat to stay alive.

[rcrusoe]

MS has a plan

I read that Microsoft has snagged the next Olympic website
contract and will require silverlight be installed to view video.

By the end of the games hundreds of thousands of computers will
likely be infected with silverlight which means:

1. They will have a good base for competing with flash, and
2. I won't be viewing any Olympic videos online

[ancre007]

Maybe ultimately ... but not quite yet

Silverlight *is* being used by some sites such as the MLB. I think MS needs to do three things to succeed with Silverlight

1) Get distribution for the player
2) Provide easy to use dev and design tools that entice developers and designers to switch from Flash.
3) Support *all* major OS platforms so (1) above can really succeed.

I would expect MS to deliver on (2) and (3) easily, if they are a priority for the company. However, (1) is where they will really be challenged, IMHO. If they can get widespread distribution, Silverlight will be credible faster than most can imagine.

[jemiller0]

Flex is already DOA

I look forward to Silverlight because I look forward to software that actually works. Flex's web service support broken to the point of being nearly unusable.

[suyts]

I'm not sure.....

Silverlight seems to work very well with their expressions studio, that integrates seamlessly with the .net suite. While you're predicting MS's eventual demise will happen soon, I'm seeing a new move in web development integrated with desktop apps. "Software plus services." Silverlight is just one cog on a gear.

[tekwiz4u]

Adobe AIR is better

Silverlight is a nice product, but its too interwoven into its own OS platform. Also, as a developer, you'll need a Windows LIVE account to utilize video streaming functions? Don't like the idea into subscribing in order to use a product. User privacy comes into play, and giving it out is harder to do these days.

Adobe AIR is a better product and its more flexible to implement. I still believe hard drive based applications work much better on machines then Web Apps. But since Flash came out, I believe the concept will gain momemtum in coming months.