Microsoft Woos Developers Under the Silverlight 300
CWmike writes to tell us that with the impending release of their Silverlight 2.0 product, Microsoft is poised to enact the next phase of their plan, wooing developers and designers directly. Microsoft is funding a French open-source project designed to allow programmers to utilize the Eclipse framework to build Silverlight apps. "Microsoft is also releasing for free a set of programming templates called the Silverlight Control Pack under its Microsoft Permissive License, as well as the technical specification for Silverlight's Extensible Application Markup Language (XAML) vocabulary via Microsoft's Open Specification Promise. The latter, said Goldfarb, should make it easier for would-be Silverlight developers."
While I don't like Flash. (Score:5, Insightful)
Flash is multi platfrom and there is GASH as an option.
I also trust Adobe to be OS neutral a lot more than Microsoft.
99% of our your users already have Flash so why make them download and install Silverlight.
So, does this mean (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:So, does this mean (Score:3, Insightful)
How does flash suck? (Any more or less then any of its competition)
Re:Ugh, I tire of this... (Score:5, Insightful)
Sounds like marketing drivel to me.
While financials are right in stating that past performance does not guarantee future performance, microsoft does not get the benefit of the doubt. They have (and continue to, albeit subtly) acted maliciously towards their competitors for a long time, and will spread FUD whenever they can to drive users to the "platform of choice*", namely Windows and Windows-derivatives.
Not to say that Microsoft hasn't come up with some good things. The problem is that adopting these good things puts you right where Microsoft wants you: following them lockstep, but never quite able to catch up.
That said, your post reeks of cheerleader. Wake me up when Mono catches up to .NET 3.0 (I think they just got 1.0 WinForms support and are nearing 2.0 compatibility?)
Re:Ugh, I tire of this... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Ugh, I tire of this... (Score:5, Insightful)
Well it has more to do with standards. I don't want to have anything I do on the internet tied to one OS, browser, or even software supplier.
Flash is supported on more OS's and more browsers than Silverlight.
Also I just can not trust microsoft to keep supporting anything but Windows.
IE, Mediaplayer, and VBA for Office all show that Microsoft will not support anything but Windows.
That isn't really politics it is just logic. The internet should be OS and Browser neutral.
Re:So, does this mean (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:While I don't like Flash. (Score:5, Insightful)
99% of our your users already have IE so why make this work with Mozilla
Same trap. Just a different beast.
Re:Really nice Silverlight sample site (Score:5, Insightful)
But flip through the site and check out the functionality.
I'm sorry, but you're making me more interested in what McCain's got to say.
Re:While I don't like Flash. (Score:4, Insightful)
so why make them download and install Silverlight.
Because you can.
Seriously, a lot of things with MS are just power games. The MS keys on your keyboard are an example. By my best estimate, about 1% of users ever use them for anything not an accident.
Re:Ugh, I tire of this... (Score:4, Insightful)
Saying Microsoft is trying to kill Adobe is "pro-" or "anti-" anything. It's an observation. It's what Microsoft always tries to do.
I think you're being just a little too sensitive here when talking about a company for which nothing is too low when it comes to smothering the competition.
Aside from that, if Silverlight is good, people will use it. Frankly, all I could ever get it to do is ask to be installed, even when it supposedly was. I guess it doesn't support Firefox. Flash is closed-source, a performance hog, and Adobe can't seem to port it to 64-bits even though they've been allegedly "trying" for years. If that doesn't tell you volumes about the quality of the code, then nothing will.
Silverlight is from Microsoft, therefore it will _not_ come without some huge club beating you in the face to lock you into Microsoft regardless of whether it's good or bad. This is an important consideration. Just when software is more cross-platform friendly than ever, Microsoft comes along and tries to set the clock back 10 years. No Linux support? Is this 1998 again?
These are important considerations above and beyond whether Silverlight is easy to work with and performs well. All Microsoft technology comes with a big ball-and-chain attached, backed by an obscenely powerful company who is not afraid to extort, intimidate and lie to maintain their advantage. For many people, that's not a problem and may even be seen as an advantage. For other people, it could be a deal-breaker.
If Microsoft wants to be treated based solely on the merits of their technology, then perhaps it's time, after 30 years, that they attempt to compete based solely on the merits of their technology.
Re:Ugh, I tire of this... (Score:4, Insightful)
I got tired of it too... (Score:4, Insightful)
As a developer, isn't the point to write better/more robust code?
I used to be platform-agnostic and hardware-agnostic, but after a few rounds of companies pulling platforms out from under me... "better" code that depends on a single vendor is something I have to look long and hard into before I'm going to jump on board. I don't care whether it's called NextStep or .NET, SmallTalk* or BeOS, if it's under the effective control of a single company it's pre-doomed. Over the past 30 years I've been burned too many times to trust ANY proprietary platform.
take better advantage of the rich Internet experience
Another buzz-phrase that was just as scary when it was the rich Desktop experience. That turned into a Microsoft-controlled virus hive. Not going there again.
I tend to use the best tools available
Me too, so long as nobody can pull those tools out from under me because they went out of business or changed their goals. I don't care so much whether it's open source or not, so long as there's multiple sources out there.
Re:Lovely rant, but I have to know one thing (Score:4, Insightful)
Actually, I imagine this as some late 30s, early 40s year old guy living in his mom's basement with trollish rants ready to copy and paste. He also has a barbecue sauce stain on his shirt.
Actually, that's how I see all trolls.
Re:Lovely rant, but I have to know one thing (Score:3, Insightful)
Microsoft is not a single entity... Microsoft is made up of thousands of employees, and I'm sure there are some who work with Silverlight that really really want this to be the next Flash.
I personally would be very upset if Silverlight became a common tool, due to the frustrations with implementing it outside of IE.
Re:Oh, Please! (Score:3, Insightful)
MS adds a lot of value to what they offer, but that doesn't mean they get a free pass regarding transgressions of the past. However, on its' own merit, I find the
Re:Ugh, I tire of this... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Ugh, I tire of this... (Score:4, Insightful)
Mono isn't a 1:1 implementation of .Net ... they are compatible with everything in 2.0 that matters.
And Wine is compatible with everything that matters in the Win32 API. That doesn't cause all programs that matter to run correctly.
Re:Microsoft highlights Silverlight on Linux (Score:3, Insightful)
You assume I care. The only reason I tried to install Silverlight was because Microsoft suggested it in order to take advantage of their new download features. I tried it and it failed miserably. I don't even run Windows any more. I'll care if some online app I want to use requires it, _and_ I can get it running with a minimum of trouble. I'm through fighting and clawing and groveling to get Microsoft crap to work. They get one chance, and if it fails as utterly as Silverlight did for me, then I quit. Sorry, this is 2008, not 1983. Software made by a company with billions of dollars and tens of thousands of employees should occasionally work and if, after all the hundreds if not thousands of dollars Microsoft has extorted from me over the past 20 years being a customer of theirs I have to put up with hassle on top of it, then I have no patience.
Tag it from now on "WorksForNow" (Score:3, Insightful)
From now until the end of time Microsoft's cross platform adventures should be tagged "Works For Now". As their DRM brand "Plays For Sure" should have been called "Plays For Now", as their "Internet Explorer" languished free of development until a challenger arose, the only thing certain about Microsoft product development is that there will come a day when utility is deprecated to further Microsoft's perceived economic interests. As soon as they perceive that either they have market ownership or that market ownership cannot be achieved they abandon further development. This is not progress.
Re:Moonlight is GPL - come help out! (Score:3, Insightful)
And I don't want it, so I won't.
Likewise Microsoft aren't helping so they don't want it either; in fact they are actively hindering with their usual technique of making Silverlight a moving target.