Nik Cubrilovic has a great write up on Silverlight, Microsoft's latest technology to hit the street. A quick glance may leave one the impression this is a flash alternative, but that would be a false impression. Silverlight is a mini .Net CLR (runtime) that runs or launches from a browser. It supports Windows and Mac, IE, Firefox, and Safari, and can be written in C#, Javascript, Python or Ruby. Silverlight apps are written in XAML (aka .Net 3.0), so for developers it's not really a new framework, just a new method to run the app. Silverlight apps can also access the browser DOM meaning they can "talk" to the webpage they are hosted in and interact in ways we've not seen before.
While the "open source" camp will find reason to complain (there is just no pleasing them) I'm pretty excited about the technology. I've seen some XAML presentations and it's amazing what you can do with simple markup. The one I expect to make the most noise about Silverlight will be Adobe, having acquired Flash when the purchased Macromedia a few years back. Adobe has been itching for a fight with Microsoft, and it looks like they are going to get it.
It started simple, over file formats. Microsoft and Adobe went head to head on who had the "open" file format. (I added the quotes because the answer was neither.) The Microsoft became more open in Office 2007 and added an XPS format aimed directly at replacing PDF. It's hard to say who "won" that round - Microsoft released Office 2007 plugins for PDF (and OpenDocument), but that just means more reason for people to use Office 2007.
Now, the heat has been turned up on Adobe. Silverlight takes a hard swing at Flash, and if that's not bad enough Microsoft has lined up a suite of Expression Studio products aimed at designers. The advantage of Expression Studio is that it works hand-in-hand with Visual Studio - so developers and designers can work together on an application without worrying about one messing up the others work.
My advice for Adobe is to review what it is you do. You have not been a company supporting the development of applications, and if you try to fight Microsoft there your on their home turf. You have however been the artists tool of choice - use that to your advantage. Photoshop, After Effects, Premiere, etc - all of these are still the best tools in their areas. Don't let a fight over PDF and Flash (something you have only because you bought Macromedia) distract you from these other products.
In fact, once you realize Adobe you can live without controlling Flash and PDF, open source them. Get Flex, Flash, and PDF 100% open and you'll find a huge interest exists in these technologies. This is the biggest shot you can take at Microsoft and it will hurt. Timing is critical however, wait too long and you'll end up like Sun and Java - too little too late.
Posted By Mike On Tuesday, May 01, 2007
Filed under microsoft silverlight adobe |
Comments (7)
Dylan Wolf
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Tuesday, May 01, 2007
4:46:47 PM
Can't remember where I ran across the article, but sI think someone at Adobe took a shot at Silverlight in an interview. The gist was that they'll probably drop cross-platform compatibility for Silverlight like they did with WMP for Mac. I guess that depends on how much it's actually used.
I assume Silverlight will get pushed out over Windows Update so you won't have to worry about adoption for users (which is the majority of computer users anyway). I do wonder about adoption among Flash designers/developers and Mac users--its success in those two markets determines whether it'll be perceived as being as ubiquitous and cross-platform as Flash is. Linux, of course, isn't supported at all, and one wonders if that will be a problem too (the user base is comparatively small but Adobe has put some focus on getting Flash 9 out for Linux).
While Silverlight isn't exactly open, if Silverlight development tools are available in the Visual Studio Express Editions, then Microsoft already has a head start on Adobe. AFAIK there aren't any free official Flash development tools, so Silverlight already looks more attractive than Flash to developers who aren't Flash pros. (Or maybe that's only a barrier for me, as I am apparently the only person on the planet who avoids downloading software illegally.)
Mike
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Tuesday, May 01, 2007
5:19:33 PM
You can get some WPF plugins for VS 2005 or the Orcas Beta to work in .Net 3.0 with designer support. The real tools won't come until later this year when Orcas goes gold.
Linux support is missing from Microsoft's line up, but so is Adobe Flash with Flex. If one goes there the other may follow, but I couldn't make the argument there are enough Linux desktop users to matter.
Gabriel.
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Tuesday, May 01, 2007
6:32:33 PM
Re: "Silverlight plugin"
Another damned browser plugin!
Re: "I assume Silverlight will get pushed out over Windows Update ..."
Arg!
Re: "While the "open source" camp will find reason to complain (there is just no pleasing them) ..."
Hypocrite!
Re: Silverlight in general:
Sounds interesting... As the skills of designers become more commoditized, those with full-fledged programmer-savvy will become the creme of the crop. Having VS intertwined with Silverlight's tools will make this transition from designer to designer-programmer smooth.
I'm curious what our designer pals would/will think of the product, from a toolset standpoint.
Mike
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Tuesday, May 01, 2007
7:18:21 PM
I'm not a Hypocrite, I'm a sell out - there is a difference ($$).
Gabriel.
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Thursday, May 03, 2007
5:24:09 PM
Nah, you can be a hypocrite and a sell-out at the same time. At least in this case.
In other news: http://news.com.com/8301-10784_3-9714669-7.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
Colm Smyth
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Friday, May 25, 2007
8:15:28 PM
Nice blog, I'll read it any time I need a bit of MS bigotry ;) Just kidding, I'm a Java "afficionado" myself.
Silverlight picks a fight with both Flash and Java; see http://colmsmyth.blogspot.com/2007/05/consumer-jre-progressing-nicely.html and maybe http://colmsmyth.blogspot.com/2007/04/choosing-between-java-flash-and-ajax-or.html
And I don't think either Adobe or Sun should give up the market for cross-platform browser VM's; it's far too big and important, even if AJAX is eating up the web while all 3 products mature (or merge in SL's case).
Mike
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Saturday, May 26, 2007
12:42:46 AM
Hmmm... perhaps Perry should have warned me I was posting on a Java blog - we would be better off in a abortion debate =p
Flex/Silverlight has yet to be seen - not enough sites using either to call a "winner" - but - I think it's safe to say the time for Java Applets is over. Too many days of crashing browsers and slowing systems to a crawl. Worse, Sun loads that icon in the system tray when viewing an applet - calling attention to itself and having a web page cause interaction with the shell.
I didn't even know on my main system Java wasn't installed until I downloaded Scratch and tried to view a project online.
