Microsoft sheds light on Flash rival

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Applications also can be written using JavaScript or HTML. At Mix, Microsoft plans to detail other scripting languages that can be used to write Silverlight applications, Key said.

Eventually, Microsoft intends to create versions of Silverlight that run on mobile devices.

Although Microsoft has signed on media and advertising companies interested in Silverlight, the technology still does not have broad industry support.

Hosted application provider Salesforce.com has no plans to support Silverlight because it "isn't a factor in the marketplace," said Adam Gross, director of product marketing at Salesforce.

Also at the NAB conference, Microsoft plans to detail enhancements to Windows Longhorn Server, due later this year, geared specifically at serving up video more efficiently, Key said. The company will also discuss an addition to its SharePoint server tailored to the media and entertainment industry.

CNET News.com's Mike Ricciuti contributed to this report.

[tasehagi]

Oops... no link on "Click to view"....

Oops... there is no link to photos at "Click to view"

[a85]

funny

It's funny that Apple owns the silverlight.com domain name and it is some sort of password protected website - does anyone know what it is all about?

[K.P.C.]

Site not owned by Apple . . .

Whoever owns the "silverlight.com" name created his page using
Apples "iWeb" webpage builder ;-)

[Ilgaz]

"Due to enhancements in new version, Silverlight is now Windows only"

No, not happened yet. It will happen if industry is genius (!) to
lock themselves to MS technology.

Also, what about Linux? Flash 9 exists even for Solaris x86.

[lkrupp]

Will only work half-a$$ed on other platforms

As with Windows Media Player while Microsoft will technically be
able to say it works with other platforms like the Macintosh in
reality it will work "properly" or "full featured" only with Windows
I'm betting. Yet another trojan horse from the bowels of Redmond.

[pictureyourride]

silverlight

You have to give some consideration to the whole bunch of us out here and have no access to high speed unless we buy a Hughes dish. That is way out of the price range of the same folks who don't have access to DSL or any high speed access. Even if the content suffers a little in quality, I'd much rather have the reduced quality of a 40kbps stream than constant buffering which makes it worthless. Someone has to give a little and ATT seems to not care about picking up 30 customers here or 40 over there. I thought algore was going to fix all this when he invented the internet.

[rcrusoe]

One possible problem

This product is "targeted at companies in media, entertainment, advertising and marketing".

And from what I've read that industry is predominately Mac now, and Apple is gaining even more marketshare.

Could be a hard sell if it is Windows only.

[Ted Miller]

I would like to believe you are right.

If Mac could gain more market share, their prices a bit lower and all their software venders lowered their prices. I would get rid of all my PC's (My Vista machine first) Probably (not that I really want to) keep one WinXP Pro computer (would not want to corrupt my possible Mac in any way by putting XP on it) and go buy a MAC!!!! Except I have one piece of software that is so important to me and that is what is really stopping me right now! :-< Then again, perhaps if the business world suddenly got really really smart and started buying Macs, the people who make my software will make it for the Mac also. I can only pray for the day that would happen for then I would be FREE!!! Yes!!!

[KTLA_knew]

predominantly Mac

"And from what I've read that industry is predominately Mac now"

The industry used to be *exclusively* Mac. It has shifted away from that to a mixed PC/Mac industry.

[gggg sssss]

customer always right

since 95 percent of the viewers who will hopefully watch this stuff, one would assume any customer focussed vendor / creator would deliver content in a format that works best, works without having to install / download / pay for etc . Since those 95 percent of customers are windows users, one would assume that the entertainment industry would deliver in a windows medium.

Of course, the industry you appear to hold high includes the likes of the RIAA and MPAA, so customer focussed may not be something they have yet subscribed to. RIP .

[scottwilkins]

Needs to be part of the browser.....

I'm getting tired of all these "add ins" for browsers. Sure, I know MS got sued for forcing software on folks, but there is a fine line between forcing unwanted stuff and just making it easier for folks to use software.

I only hope the video playback ability of this is better than Flash. I hate Flash video. I use high res monitors, and get tired of postage stamp sized videos on web pages. I don't mind pixelization, if at least I can view the video better than what I can in the tiny format they are usually in.

[ctg44]

If there was one company I could delete from the computing world...

It would be Adobe, and in a nanosecond...nothing is more bloated and crappy than Acrobat (hello, why in the hell would I want a "speed loader" taking up my RAM and slowing down my system? Morons)..

Then we have Flash sites. I SOOOOOO hate Flash, Authorware, or anything else resembling Flash...I've taken so many online courses for my business degree that used Flash that I'm about ready to throw some No Script and Flash Kill from the Firefox extensions site into my browser and deal with the resulting issues with my classes.

What I really hate the most about Adobe products is that they WILL not unload once in RAM w/o going into Task Manager and killing them. Hell, even Outlook with my 1.2GB mail file loads and unloads faster than Adobe's pile of trash...if I did not NEED the ability to write to .pdf files, and had not be given a free copy of Acrobat Pro, I would so ditch the pile of crap and find something else.

[Ted Miller]

Confusing?

Yup!!! The WWW just got a bit more confusing. Boy do I feel so much at the helm. NOT!

[Xenu7-214951314497503184010868]

aka "Flash with bugs"

According to the Buddhists, when you die there's a Flash of bright light, the Dharmakaya. If you recognize it, you are instantaneously freed from samsara, the endless cycle of birth and death. There is also a dull Silverlight, which leads you to further rebirth in samsara. You choose.

[dansterpower]

Amen!

Flash with Bugs. Yep.

No thanks.

I'll go for the Bright Light.

[adlyb1]

Actually...

I would have to disagree. Flash has been getting quite bloated and since Adobe acquired made things even worse.
Even though I don't think MS's tool will make any great inroads, it should shake up Adobe enough to get a great product back on track.

[thedreaming]

Not again

Don't let Microsoft do to Adobe what they did to Netscape. Don't use their latest "Innovation" which is unproven and probably still in beta.

[Microsoft_Facts]

Yet another virus and attack vector.

Oh boy, yet another way for Microsoft to create a virus and attack platform.

[Vegaman_Dan]

Stop, drop, and think

Assuming the worst is not very helpful. Especially with no proof, evidence, or even an actual product you can put your hands on.

Oh boy, yet another way for peoople to be clueless about what they post about.

[Vegaman_Dan]

Stop, drop, and think

Assuming the worst is not very helpful. Especially with no proof, evidence, or even an actual product you can put your hands on.

Oh boy, yet another way for peoople to be clueless about what they post about.

[compjobs]

No Linux support

As expected it won't support Linux. Dump it.

[googlesaurus]

LMAO

Neither did the first 8 versions of Flash.

[ewelch]

What about all those Linux developers?

What I mean is, if open source developers are out there with
their proverbial develpment prowess, why don't they aim some
of that vaunted skill at this problem and come up with a Flash
and/or Silverlight media viewers?

Microsoft has hundreds of people working on this. How can they
compete against hundreds of thousands of programmers?

Of course, just because nobody's come up with a distribution
we'd turn over to our grandmothers to install, this new challenge
would yield the same result. Not as usable. Not consistent,
usable or attractive as the big software companies can produce.

[smilin:)]

What does support linux?

The only game you can play is catch the monkey banner ad.

[smilin:)]

What does support linux?

The only game you can play is catch the monkey banner ad.

[gggg sssss]

linux users are cheap

what content developer would waste time targetting a bunch of cheap linux users who expect everuthing for free? Too small a market to bother with, too cheap a demographic to get a return on investment from. And no, the people who run a linux server farm arent using those boxes to watch ads, watch movies, play games, so they don't count.

[Wander9s]

Make more window operation

Since Microsoft always steal other companies' software and develop into Microsoft production without penalty for monopoly then other companies should steal and create other operation system similarly like window and sell. I will be the first one to buy. Let start work other window system right now to competition with Microsoft.

[ctg44]

Before you can build a big business...

...you need to first go back to high school and learn English. That way, when you get up in front of a crowd and lie and bluff your way like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs or 99% of the other big businessmen or politicians, you can actually speak a real language that someone in the audience might actually understand.

Now, that said, at least Microsoft has had the brains to get away with stealing something everyone else was willing to pay for. Besides, Apple's been trying for years to do that, has a comparable (some say better...I don't really care for it) operating system in OS X. I will live with Windows' security issues and keep on using my government-grade encryption of anything important until there actually IS something better. Linux, and in my opinion, OS X, are not there yet, and that is just comparing to XP Pro / Media Center Ed. 2005, not even Vista, which I've never used.

[technewsjunkie]

Over my dead (media) body

Why the @!#^ does Microsoft have to control every app on the
planet.

NO MS CONTROLLING DIGITAL MEDIA STANDARDS!

Too much concentrated power in one company!

[garrywdm]

That can be arranged

Go put your head back in the sand, you'd oppose the wheel too if MS had it, on the flat earth principle.

[revolink24]

One thing....

I just have to say one thing about a company controlling media.....


iTunes, anyone?

[bobby_brady]

As long as I can disable as ActiveX

I disable ActiveX. I can't see how anyone can read on the Internet with all these Flash ads animating next to the articles. I keep Active X turned off.

[fcekuahd]

I totally agree

I don't allow ActiveX controls to run in IE. And I hate distracting Flash ads when I'm trying to read. With AJAX, Flash is mostly obsolete anyway.

[azareus]

Global Warming

Can you make a global warming game in Silverlight?

http://cognitivlabs.com/smallearthtest1.htm

[drtyrell]

Yet another failed "Dethrown" attempt

When is Microsoft going to come to grips with the fact they can't even make a descent operating system, let alone "dethrown" someone else who makes a great product. They will never dethrown iPod, Flash, or OSX. Give it up guys.

[gggg sssss]

clue

so the 20 million who have baught vista aleady are too stupid to know what makes a good operating system? Says you? Who would want to dethrown ( is that liek throuw up?) what amounts to 5 percenmt of the market? Who would waste time?

[smilin:)]

You people are so jaded

You've never seen it, you've never tried it, it's bringing competition to Adobe's (bloated) flash player and all you can do is gripe.

If MS cured cancer you people would still gripe.

[MSSlayer]

If MS cured cancer..

Then the cure would be more deadly then cancer itself.

[aSiriusTHoTH]

True... but...hehe

That is true.. but M$ would probably charge people for the cure. Oh yea... pharmaceutical companies do that.. never mind :\

[AdamMoore]

Agreed

I have to agree. No matter what this story is about, as long as it has the word "Microsoft" in it, it'll get more replies than every other story.

I especially enjoy the comments about the Zune, as it clearly has nothing to do with the topic. Over 80% of the people who whine about Microsoft buy their products and in real life probably don't say a word. Forums are their release I guess.

"If you like the iPod" fits about just as well as the Zune comment.

[mattumanu]

is it proprietary?

If it's a plugin that reads and plays flash, I'd like to know more about why Microsoft is doing this. If it's a complete development environment, then Microsoft has a lot of work to do.

There's a huge number of people out there who use flash in their development tools exclusively because it the best there is, period. Who would want to move to an inferior develpement environment?

[t8]

Microsoft = proprietary

If is wasn't proprietary then it wouldn't be Microsoft.

Now you know the answer, you don't need to ask this question again.

[MichaelWorobec]

If you like the Zune ...

If you listen to music on a Zune, then this might be the media technology for you!

[MichaelWorobec]

If you like the Zune ...

If you listen to music on a Zune, then this might be the media technology for you!

[AdamMoore]

?

And what does that mean exactly?

The sky is blue and the world is round. I figured i'd add things not relating to topics myself.

This project is made by a different sector of Microsoft, not the same people as the "Zune".

"If you like the iPod..."