back to article Microsoft sneaks out Silverlight 2

Microsoft has come a step closer to releasing the next version of its Silverlight browser plug in. With all eyes on an official release of Silverlight 2.0 around the company's Professional Developers' Conference (PDC) this month, Microsoft has issued the first runtime and tools release candidates. The Silverlight 2.0 package …

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  1. John Lawton
    Stop

    Don't go there!

    Can you trust Microsoft?

    Until they support Linux OS with their plug-in then using Silverlight is supporting Microsoft's attempts to perpetuate their domination of the desktop OS market. They are doing this by deliberately marketing products that aren't truly cross-platform, i.e. at least work on Windows, OSX and Linux, and of course by creating a non standards-compliant browser (IE). At least Flash works in Linux, better to stick with that for now.

    John

  2. Ian North

    Multi OS Support

    Silverlight already works in IE and Firefox on Windows and in Safari and Firefox on Mac. There is also a Microsoft sanctioned Linux port called Moonlight which works with Konqueror, Opera and Firefox again. I don't see what else they can do to make it much more cross-platform than that!

  3. Chris

    Sanctioned

    > I don't see what else they can do to make it much more cross-platform than that!

    Have Microsoft offered any guarantees about the future of Moonlight? What future level of support have they committed to and what have they said about Linux distros who do not have patent agreements with Microsoft? Personally, I think they've suckered you. If Silverlight were to become a success on the back of you and others touting Moonlight, you'd see a rapid change in attitude from them.

  4. phat shantz
    Paris Hilton

    The Sixty Percent Solution

    Microsoft rolls out another "tool" or "product" (however you classify it) that is 1) Already delivered by others, and 2) Done better by others. And they want us to be impressed.

    Should any developer descend into the depths of evil that is Flash/Silverlight, those with any shred of self-respect (undeserved, admittedly) would be advised to stick to Adobe.

    But this is like all the other "innovations" from Microsoft.

    Silverlight is done better by Adobe.

    SSRS is done better by Crystal Reports.

    LINQ is done better by just about everybody.

    And if any enterprise web developer using ASP.NET uses any of the Microsoft web form components, they should be summarily tossed from the "best practices" club. Enterprise development deserves two-day's worth of developer's pay for some world-class web components from Infragistics or DevExpress.

    I could go on.

    The list is just too long to recount here, but suffice to say that everything Microsoft releases in these areas are nothing more than beans so the Microsoft marketing bean-counters can loudly proclaim, "We have that."

    And I'm a WineDOS fanboi. Really. I just don't like to see incompetent middle managers and novice programmers hurting themselves while trying to buy into Microsoft's tools. These tools are what I call the "60 percenters."

    Microsoft tools like Silverlight and LINQ and their web or form components are competent for 60 percent of the tasks an enterprise will need. The other 40 percent is not there. The base on which the product is delivered may have a promise of those extra capabilities, but the capabilities are just not there. Developers will spend weeks trying to re-invent the wheel that could have been purchased from third party vendors at a fraction of the price -- and in a maintained and supported form, too!

    Regardless, Flash and Silverlight are the big vendor's big joke on the web, in my opinion. If they weren't pretty, we'd consider them a virus. They bloat web pages, they annoy users, they add nothing, and the "developers" are not usually developers; they are art-school bum-outs who turned to the web to make their living. But that's just my opinion. (How many users have web browsers or tools that allow them to turn Flash off unless absolutely necessary? I rest my case.)

    The world would be better off without either Flash or Silverlight. The world, if it wants one, should choose the better product. One virus is annoying. Two viruses are an epidemic.

    Paris, because she probably knows a thing or two about Flash.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    Is it just me...

    ...but I have never seen SilverLight even working - even in IE7 on Windows XP (Vista just does not run!). Whenever I have tried (even the examples), 9 out of 10 times they never seem to load; if it actually does load, it then stops executing leaving you with nothing at all... and then the browser crashes. As for cross-browser and platform; I agree with Chris: as soon as it suits MS, *bang* gone - Windows only.

    To be honest, these days I try to avoid Flash as well - I would rather my page work and be accessible thanks very much.

    Finally: will people please STOP using Flash for menu systems (yes I am looking at you SonyEricsson Developer forum :P *arrrrgh*)!

  6. Paul
    Thumb Down

    Re: The Sixty Percent Solution

    Sorry bit off topic, but Crystal reports is steaming, bag o'poo. If it was person it would be pedophile.

    SSRS aint no dream but Crystal Reports lowers the bar to a such a back breaking low limbo height, it doesn't take much to create a more comfortable experience.

    either way SSRS and Crystal, aint no LogiXml.

  7. The Mighty Biff

    Boogie

    Mmm. Crystal Reports. The name is ironic I think.

    Anyhow, surely some competition in the browser plugin market is a good thing, or do we prefer monopoly solutions, I mean standard ways of doing things ?

    It's certainly ironic that it's not Microsoft with the monopoly this time, and given the amount of Silverlight content I've found on the web so far it probably won't be for some time.

  8. phat shantz
    Paris Hilton

    @paul

    <<SSRS aint no dream but Crystal Reports lowers the bar to a such a back breaking low limbo height, it doesn't take much to create a more comfortable experience.>>

    And yet, Microsoft still seems willing to hit bottom and dig, if necessary, to underachieve.

    I didn't mean to ignore your pet product, either. I was just referencing products that others would recognize without having to google the name.

    Paris, because she knows how to hit bottom to underachieve.

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