* Posts by Joe Garrett

1 publicly visible post • joined 18 Aug 2008

Microsoft Silverlight: 10 reasons to love it, 10 reasons to hate it

Joe Garrett

Its all good...

I've ready the flames and the suggestions.

I am a developer that uses Microsoft Tools to develop solutions to both windows, linux and mac users.

Currently you are correct that there isn't a concerted effort to develop Silverlight for any other platform with the exception of Windows based pc's. However, the promising solution this is that the technology will enable all users to experience fully fledged applications built for the web.

No, I am not talking about a simple video with some fancy graphics, nor an animated stick figure beating the death out of another. I'm talking about Web Applications that are from the ground up developed to enable a user such as yourself to interact with data, services and functions. Imagine for a moment signing into to livemesh.com (msft - linux users beware). Loading your desktop application and having access to your pc through the web much like other products but, with real access.

Embedding applications to the browser is a step that many companies are wanting to take and fortunately someone is paying the $ to get them there. Adobe and Microsoft are recognizing the importance of web applications.

BTW:

Expression Blend and Expression Design are not photoshop clones nor are they a typical design tool. They are used to code and design in conjunction with development methods. They have source code viewing and are not specific to Silverlight.

While it is true that it does not support H.264 currently it does support VC1 for very specific reasons:

VC-1 requires more processing to encode, but is designed for lightweight decoding. This allows more computers to play back video. With the YouTube and normal quality videos there is generally no difference. However HD videos require significantly more processing power and the difference is significant.

Item 8: Flat Wrong

http://www.microsoft.com/net/wcfdetails.aspx

Item 10. This is misinformation and not fact based. In fact depending upon the field and company this can be entirely false.

Item 1: Failure of Apple (though, through an AddOn MSFT Could sell the add-on upon approval from apple).

Item 2: Silverlight is not flash...The comparison is rather like comparing a wheelbarrow to a ferrari - sure they both have wheels...but?

Item 4: This is actually a pro - A developer and a UI Designer now use the same instruction base for their deliver. Consider the sample: Developer makes a connection point to a webservice for payment acceptance. Designer updates UI to accept the input. Instead of developer waiting for mockup, slicing and recoding to compile and redeploy.