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Introducing Microsoft Silverlight

  • Article

It is with tremendous pleasure that I can reveal Microsoft Silverlight: our next-generation, cross-platform, cross-browser web client runtime. Silverlight (previously codenamed "WPF/E") is a lightweight subset of XAML for building rich media experiences on the web.

There's lots of material at the NAB virtual press room site, but I thought I'd share my top ten list of reasons why you might want to use Silverlight:

  1. It supports playback of WMV files on both PC and Macintosh, with many options for interactivity during playback; with just a couple of lines of code, you can provide a platform-neutral way to handle all your movie files. Silverlight supports full-screen 720p video and offers seamless transitions between full-screen and windowed mode without losing your position in the video (something that media sites are crying out for today). 
  2. By separating markup (XAML) from code, Silverlight provides a familiar web metaphor for designers and developers. You can embed XAML directly within an HTML file if you want a simple, monolithic solution, or you can keep the two separate to enforce a delineation between different web development roles.
  3. Silverlight and HTML integrate seamlessly together. Every XAML element can be accessed or manipulated from the same client-side JavaScript that would be used to interact with any DHTML element: there are no artificial boundaries or barriers, and you can even overlay HTML elements on top of Silverlight content (simply by creating a windowless frame). We'll also make it very easy for an ASP.NET AJAX developer to add Silverlight content.
  4. You can embed XAML directly into your HTML pages; there's nothing binary or opaque about the format. There are only three steps necessary to add animation or media to your RIA application: (i) include a standard JavaScript file in your HTML header; (ii) call a function to create the Silverlight object anywhere on the screen; (iii) add some XAML content (an animation, some media) for runtime delivery.
  5. You have full runtime interactivity with Silverlight content. The contents of the XAML file can be completely server-generated, to contain information populated from a database. From JavaScript, it's just a matter of calling the createFromXaml method to add or remove elements dynamically at runtime. There's nothing that you can only create or manipulate at design-time.
  6. Silverlight is just a 1MB download on a PC (slightly more on a Macintosh because the universal package contains both Intel and PowerPC versions); it supports Windows XP and above, with Windows 2000 support to come.
  7. Silverlight is blindingly fast - for example, you can play many videos simultaneously without stuttering or dropping frames (subject to network bandwidth, of course). We're introducing a new video brush in Silverlight that allows you to use video as a texture for any 2D object (a rectangle, an ellipse or a path). This is going to allow designers incredible power to use media in new ways that have never been accessible through other existing technologies.
  8. Silverlight is both client- and server-agnostic. There's no difference between the Macintosh and PC runtimes; you don't need any Microsoft software on the server if you don't want to - you can deliver a great Silverlight experience from an Apache / Linux server to a Mac OS 10.4 client.
  9. Silverlight is almost 100% upward compatible with WPF. Animation, 2D vector graphics, media, text - they're all present in Silverlight and the concepts you've learnt in WPF carry forward (although Silverlight is a subset - it doesn't support WPF features such as 3D, data binding or templates). You can use the same tools (e.g. Expression Design) to generate content for Silverlight; you can take XAML from Silverlight and use it in a WPF application when you want to scale up and take full advantage of your local machine.
  10. Ah... #10. I can't reveal this yet - there's a big surprise up our collective corporate sleeve that will be announced at MIX. I hate to hold back on you, but anticipation is part of the pleasure, as my mother used to tell me as a child when I was waiting impatiently for Christmas to come!

Now that Windows Vista is done, I'll be shifting the focus of my blog slightly - I'll still write just as much about WPF, but I'll also start to write about its web-based little brother, since they both are part of the same continuum and my day-to-day job incorporates both technologies equally. Rich interactive web-based and Windows-based content; it's an exciting time to be a client platform evangelist!

Comments

  • Anonymous
    April 15, 2007
    Silverlight is now featured on10: http://on10.net/Blogs/tina/out-with-wpfe-in-with-microsoft-silverlight-this-has-just-been-announced/

  • Anonymous
    April 15, 2007
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    April 15, 2007
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    April 15, 2007
    What about managed code and controls?

  • Anonymous
    April 15, 2007
    Does this mean Microsoft will finally start shipping a WMV codec for Mac OS X?

  • Anonymous
    April 15, 2007
    No wonder Microsoft is never mentioning "round-tripping scenarios". Because Silvelright supports none. Of all 9 points above, 9 of the 9 are lock-in scenarios. Only newbies will be fooled.

  • Anonymous
    April 15, 2007
    Nuovo rilascio diMicrosoft Silverlight,piattaforma conosciutacon il codename WPF/E, per la creazione

  • Anonymous
    April 15, 2007
    The official name as well as site is now out for Silverlight, which used to be called WPF/E. Lookin'

  • Anonymous
    April 15, 2007
    Microsoft has announced that the little cross-platform, cross-browser cousin of Windows Presentation

  • Anonymous
    April 15, 2007
    So Microsoft Silverlight is the official name for WPF/e. Read Tim Sneath's announcement on his blog here

  • Anonymous
    April 15, 2007
    Microsoft dévoile un peu plus Siverlight (feu WPF/E) à l'occasion du NAB 2007. Présentation des innovations du framework Microsoft, dans la partie d'échec 2.0 l'opposant à Adobe Apollo. La réponse du berger à la bergère Tim Sneath est un

  • Anonymous
    April 15, 2007
    Love the Logo. The Microsoft Naming Conventions seem to be changing for the better: Expression Interactive Designer (a long boring name) became Expression Blend, and now WPF/E becomes Silverlight with a friggin cool Logo. You people should've reserved the "Wow is now" thing for Mix...

  • Anonymous
    April 15, 2007
    And, hey, hopefully, there'll be an Expression Blend Express Edition for those students and hobbyists around here. We won't even mind if it's restricted to only non-commercial use, like the Robotics Studio..

  • Anonymous
    April 15, 2007
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    April 15, 2007
    http://blogs.msdn.com/tims/archive/2007/04/15/introducing-microsoft-silverlight.aspx Published with BlogMail

  • Anonymous
    April 15, 2007
    Tim Sneath : " It is with tremendous pleasure that I can reveal Microsoft Silverlight : our next-generation,

  • Anonymous
    April 15, 2007
    Just Windows and Mac? No Linux? Restricted to just WMV?

  • Anonymous
    April 15, 2007
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    April 15, 2007
    Introducing Microsoft SilverlightIt is with tremendous pleasure that I can reveal Microsoft Silverlight:...

  • Anonymous
    April 16, 2007
    By "available on PC or MAC" you mean available on Personnal computers or on a PC running  a Microsoft Operating System?

  • Anonymous
    April 16, 2007
    You've heard snippets of details about what this thing code-named "WPF/e" could do, maybe even downloaded

  • Anonymous
    April 16, 2007
    (이미지는 네뷸라라는 로고) Microsoft Silverlight 그동안 언급을 하지 않던 마이크로소프트의 차세대 웹 전략의 일부인 Microsoft Silverlight 브랜드가

  • Anonymous
    April 16, 2007
    Auf der NAB Konferenz in Las Vegas wurde der neue Produktname, sowie weitere Details über die neueste

  • Anonymous
    April 16, 2007
    http://www.microsoft.com/silverlight http://msdn.microsoft.com/silverlight http://www.silverlight.net

  • Anonymous
    April 16, 2007
    Those of you, who visited my session on Windows Presentation Foundation, hopefully remember speaking

  • Anonymous
    April 16, 2007
    Is it going to support SVG?

  • Anonymous
    April 16, 2007
    Microsoft has announced Silverlight . Microsoft's next-generation, cross-platform, cross-browser web

  • Anonymous
    April 16, 2007
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    April 16, 2007
    Yes! Windows Presentation Foundation /Everywhere (WPF/E) now has a official name - Microsoft Sliverlight.

  • Anonymous
    April 16, 2007
    Many of you have heard of WPF/e , or Windows Presentation Foundation Everywhere . Well it was just announced

  • Anonymous
    April 16, 2007
    Annoncé en exclusivité à la conférence NAB , le nom final du projet connu sous le nom de code WPF/e est

  • Anonymous
    April 16, 2007
    Microsoft changed the name of WPF/E to Microsoft Silverlight. This has to be the first time I've

  • Anonymous
    April 16, 2007
    WPF/E ganhou seu nome de mercado Silverlight. Como disse em um post anterior precisávamos de um nome

  • Anonymous
    April 16, 2007
    New video brush, what's wrong with the original Video Brush in WPF.  Do you mean new to Silverlight? No Databinding!!  That's like C# without classes !  It makes porting code between WPF and Silverlight very difficult.  It basically removes the whole MVC architecture.   No templates imply that there won't be any real ItemsControl support either (listboxes etc).  If there is then it's going to be really limited and perform like a dog for large lists. So will no. 10 be the not so secret cross platform mini runtime?  I hope this makes it into v.1.  I also hope this makes it onto my phone, zune and some future XBOX RIA platform.

  • Anonymous
    April 16, 2007
    Where's the Linux download? No Linux = not cross platform.

  • Anonymous
    April 16, 2007
    Will there be Linux client support like Flashplayer? What about Solaris and *BSD ?

  • Anonymous
    April 16, 2007
    No Linux = not cross platform I would say more: No open source = not cross platform

  • Anonymous
    April 16, 2007
    If this is wmv only then "a platform-neutral way to handle all your movie files" only holds true if all of your movie files are wmv - I don't have a single one on my hard drive (unless there are some tucked away in the system folders being used for stuff built into Windows) So unless this also works with other video formats I'm decidedly unexcited

  • Anonymous
    April 16, 2007
    I won't use it unless there is a Linux client. Compatibility should be top priority.

  • Anonymous
    April 16, 2007
    Tim Sneath : It is with tremendous pleasure that I can reveal Microsoft Silverlight : our next-generation,

  • Anonymous
    April 16, 2007
    Well, the cat is out of the bag ! "WPF/E" now has a real name: Microsoft Silverlight . There's a lot

  • Anonymous
    April 16, 2007
    Amazing. Cross-platform compatible usually means that it can handle Windows and Macintosh at minimum (and should also include Linux). They even claim Mac compatibility. Too bad the demo video won't play on my Mac; neither inline in the Web page nor if I download the stand-alone file. Typical.

  • Anonymous
    April 16, 2007
    Tragic. Microsoft loses .00001% of the user community, which detests them anyway, by not supporting Silverlight on Linux. I love how MSFT treats those particular losers for what they are. Obviously MSFT could support Linux as the code already runs on unix. HAHAHA, boohoo it isn't open source, boohoo MSFT doesn't love us. When will they ever tire of barking at the moon?

  • Anonymous
    April 16, 2007
    #10 Is open source.

  • Anonymous
    April 16, 2007
    WPF/E no more, say hello to Silverlight

  • Anonymous
    April 16, 2007
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  • Anonymous
    April 16, 2007
    After lurking in the shadow of it's codename for several months Silverlight has finally been announced

  • Anonymous
    April 16, 2007
    >No Linux = not cross platform. Yes its Cross plaform... Linux is just a geek toy

  • Anonymous
    April 16, 2007
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  • Anonymous
    April 16, 2007
    s/cross platform/dual platform/

  • Anonymous
    April 16, 2007
    Where's the linux client? If there would be one I could think about using it. Regards, Armin

  • Anonymous
    April 16, 2007
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  • Anonymous
    April 16, 2007
    I second the need for compiled c# possibly they will allow the compiled code to include only the dotnet bits used in the app into the bytecode, do this and the apps are a little larger, but you never have to worry about what framework version you are working with. Now that would be so cool...

  • Anonymous
    April 16, 2007
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  • Anonymous
    April 16, 2007
    Is this an open standard? No. You claim cross platform. That term generally means it can be arbitrarily cross platform because the code base can be appropriately modified where required. You have written an application that happens to be targeted to two different platforms. Not the same thing. m32r, armeb, SuperH, ppc64, AMD64, S/390, IA-64, HP PA-RISC, MIPS CPUs, ARM, Motorola/IBM PowerPC, Alpha, Sun SPARC, Motorola 68k, Intel x86 / IA-32 are the architectures supported by the Debian project. THAT, is cross platform.

  • Anonymous
    April 16, 2007
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  • Anonymous
    April 16, 2007
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  • Anonymous
    April 16, 2007
    congratulations on this long-awaited product. I think the market is ready for it.

  • Anonymous
    April 16, 2007
    Another proprietary product aimed at locking users into Microsoft-only technologies?  No thanks.

  • Anonymous
    April 16, 2007
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    April 16, 2007
    Idag på NAB-mässan publicerades en hel del information om den nya teknik för rikare webbapplikationer

  • Anonymous
    April 16, 2007
    "...cross-platform, cross-browser web client runtime..." Dual-platform, not cross-platform. And what other browsers other than IE will bother implementing inline XAML parsing? This is tiresome. You guys know that the Mac isn't much of a threat to MS because people are too in love with commodity hardware and Apple will never offer a platform based on commodity hardware. But you also know that Linux in the enterprise is a sleeping giant. All I can think of when I read another silly anouncement from some bottom-feeder or PR flak (and that's basically what an evangelist is, folks) from Microsoft that conspicuously ignores linux is just how much you've become like the IBM of old that you all dismissed back in the day as a sclerotic, disorganized mess, sacrificing new opportunities to protect old entrenched products. How much good MS technology is going to go to waste because the inferior Windows franchise needs to be protected? If you offered a version of Office for linux, half of your corporate desktop Windows licenses would disappear overnight. I know plenty of IT people who would drop Windows like a bad habit if Office was available for Linux. And you know it. We already have much better alternatives to Windows for IT-managed desktops - are you going to capitalize on the natural move to commoditized operating systems by making your other technologies and products like Office and .NET the standard there, or are you going to wait for those to be commoditized with free versions, too?

  • Anonymous
    April 16, 2007
    News of the week. More shooting in school and it's happen in Virginia Tech today. From the last time I heard from the news it's standing at 29 deaths and what happen afterward I don't reall know. Now let get on to car stuffs shall ...

  • Anonymous
    April 16, 2007
    I'll pass on this. MS is NOT a company you can trust when it comes to the web.

  • Anonymous
    April 16, 2007
    wow, Mac + Windows make cross-platform? What's next? Windows xp + windows 2k makes it cross-platform (not vista, because that is obviously incompatible with anything other than some (rare) parts of vista)? BUT WE CAN RUN IT ON OUR APACHE SERVERS!!!1!!1 But doesn't this interfere with your FUD campaigns? Won't you sue us for running it? "... of a Windows Vista Technical Evangelist" ever heard of a paradox? Contradiction? Windows doesn't go with Evanglist, FUD was invented and used way before Windows came along. On the other hand, don't let these comments get to you personally, I mean, somebody has to drop Fat Man.

  • Anonymous
    April 16, 2007
    Tim Sneath : " It is with tremendous pleasure that I can reveal Microsoft Silverlight : our next-generation,

  • Anonymous
    April 16, 2007
    WMV files? That's great, but is it ONLY Windows Media format? If so, doesn't that seem unbelievably short-sighted given the proliferation of MPEG-4 and AAC formats?

  • Anonymous
    April 16, 2007
    Why is there no support for Opera?

  • Anonymous
    April 16, 2007
    This is gonna be a flop. You only support Windows and the Mac. What about Linux and BSD? Don't claim it's cross-platform please.

  • Anonymous
    April 16, 2007
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  • Anonymous
    April 16, 2007
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    April 16, 2007
    Unless you support Opera and PC-BSD, I won't use this new format and I won't design any web site with this format.

  • Anonymous
    April 16, 2007
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    April 16, 2007
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    April 16, 2007
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    April 16, 2007
    Why do you call it cross-platform if it doesn'r work on Linux?

  • Anonymous
    April 16, 2007
    If they want to be "cross platform" they should have a GNU/Linux client. GNU/Linux is not just a Geek toy, most of the people I know that use only GNU/Linux are novices, not just to GNU/Linux but to computers. I love standards. I believe they are the foundation of the Internet, but they must be on GNU/Linux as well as Mac OS and Windows.

  • Anonymous
    April 16, 2007
    Why isn't there a version for Linux?

  • Anonymous
    April 16, 2007
    Microsoft hoy lanzó un nuevo formato y reproductor de video web que compite directamente contra Adobe Macromedia Flash y Apple Quicktime. Según Microsoft, su nueva tecnología que denomina Silverlight, es parecida a Flash en el sentido que se instala c

  • Anonymous
    April 16, 2007
    Adobe already has a product with wider customer base compatibility.  Why would anyone consider SilverLight?  To reduce their customer base?  To eliminate potential revenue?  To reduce customer satisfaction?  I'm not seeing a business reason to use this product over the (existing, established) competition. Are these just short-term limitations?  Is there a roadmap to expand the platform compatibility?  If so, what timeframes are we looking at?

  • Anonymous
    April 16, 2007
    It's been a busy day of announcements! Amidst the hubbub of the introduction of Silverlight, complete

  • Anonymous
    April 16, 2007
    That's great that it is for Mac and Windows...  I think you somehow forgot Unix/Linux.  Was that intentional?

  • Anonymous
    April 16, 2007
    Q: Is Microsoft considering support for additional operating systems? A: "Microsoft is gathering feedback from customers like you on Silverlight and to help determine which platforms should be supported in the future." Microsoft, don't ever claim Silverlight is "cross-platform" if you can't support other OSes besides Windows and Mac: why the need to ask for further feedback when it is obvious?

  • Anonymous
    April 16, 2007
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    April 16, 2007
    Microsoft have announced Microsoft Silverlight, our next generation, cross platform, cross browser runtime

  • Anonymous
    April 16, 2007
    Hello to a clean, well-lit name and good riddance to the worst code name ever, "WPF/E". Well, IceWeasel and Brady Bunch weren't stellar either but at least they were easier to type. Try typing "WPF/E" five times quickly and you'll...

  • Anonymous
    April 16, 2007
    At least they are "honest" that Sliverblight phones home WITH YOUR IP ADDRESS! “WPF/E” (codename) will periodically ping Microsoft.com to verify its integrity (at which point the only information that will be communicated will be your IP address and the module version).

  • Anonymous
    April 16, 2007
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  • Anonymous
    April 16, 2007
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  • Anonymous
    April 16, 2007
    Not sure if this is the right place to remark, but I like to share my first experience. After reading the news, I went to the Microsoft Silverlight website (NOT www.silverlight.com ;), downloaded the "Silverlight Community Technology Preview for Mac (Feb 2007)", restarted Firefox and went back to the Silverlight website. Oh yes, gimme some "wow"! Where used to be a simple button to start the playback of the WMV appeared.. just an empty area. Instead of a Silverlight (sounds a lot like thunder and flashes?) object, as became obvious from the html-code. So much for Silverlight on Mac.. :(

  • Anonymous
    April 16, 2007
    You may or may not have noticed an announcement we made late on Sunday, so I thought I'd draw people's

  • Anonymous
    April 16, 2007
    Taking a blog post down is never a good idea - and here's why.

  • Anonymous
    April 16, 2007
    As has been blogged all over the place , WPF/E has been renamed Silverlight (Note: lower case 'L').

  • Anonymous
    April 16, 2007
    RIA = Rich Internet Application NOT Rich Interactive Applications You can't just take an industry wide understood acronym and change it. Anybody know any applications which are not interactive? Bad Microsoft. Very Bad.

  • Anonymous
    April 17, 2007
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  • Anonymous
    April 17, 2007
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    April 17, 2007
    Yesterday we officially unveiled the name for what was previously known as the extremely catchy "WPF/e"

  • Anonymous
    April 17, 2007
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  • Anonymous
    April 17, 2007
    How can you call your software client-agnostic when it can't even run on either the 2nd or 3rd largest platform (Linux)? C'mon guys, when you consider Macromedia and Adobe have ignored Linux for so long, wouldn't you want to show them up by providing BETTER support for Linux than they do?

  • Anonymous
    April 17, 2007
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  • Anonymous
    April 17, 2007
    Kewl!  I just watched the video at www.microsoft.com/silverlight and it seems to be some sort of skateboard???

  • Anonymous
    April 17, 2007
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  • Anonymous
    April 17, 2007
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  • Anonymous
    April 17, 2007
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  • Anonymous
    April 17, 2007
    [...On Sunday at the NAB2007, Microsoft made public the release of Silverlight (formerly known as WPF/E) a new cross-browser, cross-platform plug-in for delivering the next generation of media experiences and rich interactive applications (RIA's) for the Web...] Pingback from samiqbits

  • Anonymous
    April 17, 2007
    Can't wait to use it!  Nice job Tim and team!

  • Anonymous
    April 17, 2007
    I'm all for free speech, but after reading all the comments here that don't add much for someone like me who is interested in Silverlight / WPF... It would be nice to have some kind of client-driven comment filtering to separate out the rude, abusive and repetitious stuff.  Maybe some kind of voting system, so future comment readers wouldn't have to waste that time.  Can you imagine if a newspaper published every letter that came to the editor? Alan

  • Anonymous
    April 17, 2007
    Microsoft Silverlight が正式に発表されました。これは、WPF（Windows Presentation Foundation）と同じテクノロジ（サブセット）を Web ベースで利用できるものです。Silverlight

  • Anonymous
    April 17, 2007
    Microsoft konečně přejmenoval WPF/e více zde: http://blogs.msdn.com/tims/archive/2007/04/15/introducing-microsoft-silverlight.asp

  • Anonymous
    April 17, 2007
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  • Anonymous
    April 17, 2007
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  • Anonymous
    April 18, 2007
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  • Anonymous
    April 18, 2007
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  • Anonymous
    April 18, 2007
    Jeez, interesting polarization here: half of the people are delighted by Silverlight while the other half is disgusted, and the technology has only been announced a couple of days ago ;). BTW, have you noticed this: in this case, Microsoft is actually boosting competition as Adobe was essentially the only game in town. That's some twist. As for the Linux plug-in: I believe it actually was mentioned by one of the presenters at MIX 06... If I'm right, it was at least considered, possibly kept as a surprise? In any case, Microsoft is not doing this cross-platform thing because Steve Ballmer has suddenly seen the light but because of the antitrust suit. They have to play nice, and if a minor thing such as a browser plug-in could convice the court, it would be a small price to pay.

  • Anonymous
    April 18, 2007
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  • Anonymous
    April 18, 2007
    A Vista evangelist talks about MS Silverlight.

  • Anonymous
    April 18, 2007
    If its from Microsoft then it can't be good for consumers.   This is just another example of anti-competitive, anti-consumer content protection.   If Microsoft really wants my support then they'll start support linux.  The longer they fail to do so.. the more i'll look for an alternative!  

  • Anonymous
    April 18, 2007
    If you are unhappy with this product then Microsoft has provided a list of companies to start complaining too.  I've already emailed Netflix and told them that the moment this product debuts without excellent linux AND Mac support then my household will cancel 3 netflix subscriptions. You know what to do..

  • Anonymous
    April 18, 2007
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  • Anonymous
    April 18, 2007
    Although it was great to see that my post on Silverlight got picked up in a few places (in particular,

  • Anonymous
    April 18, 2007
    Microsoft isn't getting it.  Their business model of locking consumers into their products is failing.  It worked marvelously for a decade when they were the only suitable desktop offering, but that time has passed.  Consumers are now demanding options.  As of April 10, 2007 Dell has stated intentions to provide Linux preinstalled on it's PCs.  There are already several articles pre Vista noting that MSFT is a sinking ship and unless it changes the way it does business it is dead in the water.  Vista has only proved this point more valid. I'm no expert, but I believe MSFT should stop trying to maintain a stronghold on the desktop market, and get back to it's roots as a Software company.   Focus on MS Office, and making it compatible and able to run Natively on all OS's.  Had they done this a few years ago OpenOffice would not be near the contender it is now.  Stop copying GOOG and develop some truly ingenuitive Online Content, or purchase some start-ups.  Siverlight is a good step, but it needs to be truly cross platform as stated in other posts, as well as .NET.  They are about to find themselves in the same position with mono and .NET as they are with OpenOffice. Obviously I am a Linux user, but I don't hate MSFT as much as my counterparts.  They can still turn things around and maintain leadership in the technology business.  If they keep traveling down this road of forced dominance however, their going to end up on a dead end street.

  • Anonymous
    April 18, 2007
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  • Anonymous
    April 18, 2007
    I want SVG too , hear that MS ???

  • Anonymous
    April 18, 2007
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  • Anonymous
    April 19, 2007
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  • Anonymous
    April 19, 2007
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  • Anonymous
    April 19, 2007
    In case you missed it, Microsoft announced Microsoft Silverlight this week. This is mainly a rebranding...

  • Anonymous
    April 19, 2007
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  • Anonymous
    April 19, 2007
    So i went to the silverlight page, and the movie wouldn't play... i figured maybe i needed the plug-in for it to work. I down loaded the plug-in. relaunch my browser... and the page still wouldn't play the movie. if Microsoft's plug-in can't play the movie on the page announcing it, why on earth would i expect it to play anything else and why should i leave this thing on my computer?

  • Anonymous
    April 19, 2007
    Well, i wonder how long Silverlight will stay cross-platform. It'll fade away on the Mac side over time, just like how WMP did. Microsoft is, NEVER, truely cross-platform, EVER.

  • Anonymous
    April 19, 2007
    I am glad they are not wasting time developing Silverlight for the 9 people using linux as a desktop.

  • Anonymous
    April 20, 2007
    Say, that icon looks quite similar to Mac OS X's "Core" technology icins. Microsoft - still addicted to ripping off everything that Apple comes up with, even thirty years later?

  • Anonymous
    April 20, 2007
    "I am glad they are not wasting time developing Silverlight for the 9 people using linux as a desktop." Your denial humors me :D

  • Anonymous
    April 20, 2007
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  • Anonymous
    April 21, 2007
    The icon looks like a jockstrap to me

  • Anonymous
    April 21, 2007
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  • Anonymous
    April 22, 2007
    I'll pass on this. MS is not a company you can trust when it comes to the web.

  • Anonymous
    April 22, 2007
    Tim Sneath (Musings of a Windows Vista Technical Evangelist), nice entry introducing Silverlight .

  • Anonymous
    April 22, 2007
    A lot happened whilst on holiday, and not least of which is Microsoft's announcement about Silverlight

  • Anonymous
    April 23, 2007
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  • Anonymous
    April 23, 2007
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  • Anonymous
    April 24, 2007
    It may just be an existing technology, but at least it has no longer got that stupid WPF/E name! SilverLight

  • Anonymous
    April 24, 2007
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  • Anonymous
    April 24, 2007
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  • Anonymous
    April 26, 2007
    If #10, that you can't reveal, is not a cross-platform standalone runtime to compete with Adobe Apollo, then Silverlight is already losing the battle.

  • Anonymous
    April 26, 2007
    Na época do anuncio oficial do Silverlight (codename "WPF/E") o Tim Sneath colocou em seu blog 10 razões

  • Anonymous
    April 27, 2007
    All those people complaining about lack of Linux support. Have you seen any statement as to how Linux will NOT be supported? I haven't.. Also, an open source implementation will no doubt appear sooner or later if this grabs hold of the market, whether or not a MSFT Linux client is available. Just like it happend with Java until they decided to go open source. Only this will be easier, since the technology is simpler.

  • Anonymous
    April 30, 2007
    Awesome work. Again a very informative and useful post. Thanks.

  • Anonymous
    April 30, 2007
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    April 30, 2007
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    May 01, 2007
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    May 01, 2007
    shiny! i'm going to one-way startrek-"download" my linux kernel into it's own /dev/null and get right on this silverlight thing. seriously - xaml/.net/etc are second-rate protocols/languages/apis.  using them not only limit the width of your expression because of the shear inadequacy of the microsoft approach to programming (powershell -- an interactive shell -- with static typing. my fingers hurt just thinking about it), but it locks the result of your efforts into a format whose primary/defacto implimentation is proprietary... just admit up front that you won't have anything to show for your next 6 years of programming an ms language/living the "microsoft lifestyle" and you might not regret it so much in 2013 when they don't support it anymore. doesn't microsoft control enough of your data? how many of you have your resumes in .doc format? in short -- i take offence to enrico. your personal freedom is worth taking seriously.

  • Anonymous
    May 02, 2007
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  • Anonymous
    May 02, 2007
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    May 02, 2007
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  • Anonymous
    May 02, 2007
    קשה לומר שעד היום היה למיקרוסופט מה לומר סביב פיתוח עבור Web2.0 (מה שזה לא יהיה). כמעט כל אתר Web 2.0

  • Anonymous
    May 03, 2007
    No linux support = big mistake. No data binding = big bummer.

  • Anonymous
    May 03, 2007
    Sigh, so many trolls on this thread... Despite having an extensive (10 years) open source background, Microsoft was kind enough to invite me to Mix07 to learn more about what they have in the works. I was simply blown away by Silverlight, it's easily the most compelling technology they've released since .NET. No word on whether it would run on Linux yet (frankly I'm not sure why Microsoft should bother) however they've already announced IronPython and IronRuby support, so it's a start. In summary, this is good stuff, don't knock it until you take a look at it. -Jason

  • Anonymous
    May 04, 2007
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  • Anonymous
    May 05, 2007
    SilverLight will support Linux version according to Miguel De Icaza, one of prominent author of Mono Project. So it is true that SilverLight support Linux. At the same time, SilverLight 1.1 Alpha extensible to support multiple language. http://silverlight.techboo.com

  • Anonymous
    May 05, 2007
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    May 07, 2007
    No XP x64 version?  How about 64-bit Vista?

  • Anonymous
    May 08, 2007
    now that MS supports OSX I guess we can all forget bid a fond "hasta la Vista" Vista

  • Anonymous
    May 08, 2007
    Tim - how does Silverlight sit with ASP.Net and AJAX? Do you see them as complimentary technologies, with wilverlight providing the rich media capabilities that these two are lacking?

  • Anonymous
    May 18, 2007
    I would say if it runs on MAC OSX and Windows platforms - you have already captured 98%+ of the desktop browser OS platforms in the market. Linux and Unix are traditionally server-side operating systems. If the long proclaimed day arrives when Linux becomes a mainstream desktop OS (it's been proclaimed for 10 years now), I no doubt believe Microsoft will release a version for Linux. But since that day is still in the future - I don't know why anyone would forgo ease of development and competition in the market based on the fact SilverLight does not currently support what is currently a server-side OS such as Linux.

  • Anonymous
    May 21, 2007
    They stole my creative name!!!!

  • Anonymous
    May 24, 2007
    Awesome effort. This gives developers more choice when wanting to deliver rich media content. Freedom of choice is what makes Linux so wonderful.

  • Anonymous
    May 26, 2007
    Yknow...I'm thinking this might be the first thing Microsoft has made in a while that isn't just "keeping up with the joneses"...it's SURPASSING the joneses.

  • Anonymous
    May 26, 2007
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  • Anonymous
    May 27, 2007
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    May 29, 2007
    I spoke to Noelle Waugh from B & T today. It was the first time I had spoken to anyone from B &

  • Anonymous
    June 26, 2007
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  • Anonymous
    June 26, 2007
    It would be really cool if someone could post a couple of links to sites where we can see it ikn action. The video's are all cool, but still video's. I would love to see Silverlight in action in IE 7.0.

  • Anonymous
    October 09, 2007
    My sixtieth podcast is up . We discuss "Web 2.5" as Silverlight (ne WPF/E) is announced. Seems

  • Anonymous
    November 02, 2007
    Silverlight: A jump back in time

  • Anonymous
    June 28, 2008
    Microsoft changed the name of WPF/E to Microsoft Silverlight. This has to be the first time I've seen Microsoft go from a production-like name (WPF/E) to a codename (Silverlight). I guess they figured they needed something nicer than the usual jargon.

  • Anonymous
    September 24, 2008
    What is Silverlight and why is it useful?

  • Anonymous
    December 02, 2008
    Tim Sneath : " It is with tremendous pleasure that I can reveal Microsoft Silverlight : our next-generation, cross-platform, cross-browser web client runtime. Silverlight (previously codenamed "WPF/E") is a lightweight subset of XAML for

  • Anonymous
    June 12, 2009
    " It is with tremendous pleasure that I can reveal Microsoft Silverlight : our next-generation,