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Microsoft would like to keep the power of the local machine strong.
Actually, no we don't, at least, not necessarily.

While, for a majority of situations, it may well be more economical to just do it locally, the reality is, we're pushing a lot into both system level and app-level virtualization, breaking the user/kernel ties, and other efforts in order to make it possible to build decentralized processing well on windows, even to the app level that traditionally, would have been client-only (I'm looking at you, MYOB).

It's not the same approach as google, by any means, but it's certainly a valid thin-client direction, and one that's likely to be highly competetive, since it's much more flexible.

(That interview with Mark Russinovich is built on silverlight so you'll need to install it if you want to watch it online. There are download links further down however, so it's not essential.)

am I the only developer thats sick of this html / css / javascript mess??

If you are looking for more resources and good examples here are some resources for you. Silverlight Developer Center on MSDN http://msdn.microsoft.com/silverlight http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb412395. aspx Public Community Site http://silverlight.net/ Scott Guthrie Blog Developer focused but with good general insight... http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2007/09/04/ silverlight-1-0-released-and-silverlight-for-linux -announced.aspx Webcasts http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx ?EventID=1032345586&Culture=en-US http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/WebCastEventDeta ils.aspx?culture=en-US&EventID=1032345591&CountryC ode=US 6 page architectural overview... http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb428859. aspx Suresh

Try the showcase site, from the Silverlight home page.

http://silverlight.net/Showcase/

...what can I do with it? Are there any sites or interesting apps out yet to try?

...what can I do with it? Are there any sites or interesting apps out yet to try?

C# is available on other platforms such as Linux through the Mono project, for example this article titled C# and .NET Without Microsoft. Also since the introduction of Silverlight Microsoft can allow other OS' to run a subset of .NET code -- maybe even coded in C# -- through a browser plug-in. You've fallen into the trap of thinking C# = Windows which is not true. Do some reading of these links and you'll be amazed what C# really is. Also as an EMCA specification it's not likely to be tied to a platform any more than any other international standard.

You may be right about the release dates, but I have not seen any Silverlight alphas or betas about on the web. I also haven't seen anyone except MS getting excited about it.

Did you even attempt to look? http://silverlight.net/ Download the beta (or Alpha, they still have that) http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/silverlight/defau lt.aspx

Many MS developers are very excited. We can now target, cross browser and cross platform the web with a very rich UI framework. Yes, that may have been done, but the really exciting part is that its built off of WPF, so we can target the web with the same technology that we are going to use to target the Windows desktop. No need to learn everything over again, and we can use code that is already in place as is.

If Silverlight was going to be big, it would be out and about in beta form and used by many websites by now.

Its out in beta now, and there are some big names working with it. Would you release a production site built on beta technology though? I wouldn't.

I'm absolutely sure Silverlight it nothing to worry about. Just let it pass and die out. Or just let MS flog it like at a dead horse.

I advise not to get involved with developing it. If you do, MS will only release a newer and updated version for you to "hack". Such a waste of time!

Keep living in your bubble then, we won't miss you. I build on the MS platform anyway, so I'm not worried about a third party trying to keep up. Perhaps this part of your post is why it was modded a troll. There's not a lot of thought put into it, its more mindless Linux fanboyism.

Go to http://silverlight.net/ and click the "Silverlight in action" link on the right hand side. Then tell me that Flash still has them beat ;)

As usual, Slashdot editors just assume that everyone knows what Silverlight is, as though we all follow Microsoft's every move.

The developers of Moonlight make the same assumption. I see no explanation on the Moonlight developer web site.

From Microsoft: "Microsoft® Silverlight(TM) is a cross-browser, cross-platform plug-in for delivering the next generation of .NET based media experiences and rich interactive applications for the Web. Silverlight offers a flexible programming model that supports AJAX, VB, C#, Python, and Ruby, and integrates with existing Web applications. Silverlight supports fast, cost-effective delivery of high-quality video to all major browsers running on the Mac OS or Windows."

Most of that seems to be written by a marketing man who doesn't understand the product, but wants write about it anyway. What are "... the next generation of .NET based media experiences and rich interactive applications..."

What is "delivering ... experiences"? Is Silverlight psychoactive, like marijuana?

What kind of "experiences"? Does someone ring your doorbell, and when you answer it, pour water on your shoes?

How is Silverlight "fast"? Isn't the speed limited by the user's internet connection?

What does "on the Mac OS or Windows" mean? Does Microsoft intend to exclude Linux?

Go to http://silverlight.net/ [silverlight.net] and click the "Silverlight in action" link on the right hand side. Then tell me that Flash still has them beat ;)

Name one thing you saw there that Flash can't do, and I'll show you Flash doing it.

There's too much disinformation about Flash's feature set, but trust me, as a long time Flash dev, I know better.

I'll have to wait for someone to upload that to YouTube so I can watch it.

Go to http://silverlight.net/ and click the "Silverlight in action" link on the right hand side. Then tell me that Flash still has them beat ;)

Go to http://silverlight.net/ and click the "Silverlight in action" link on the right hand side. Then tell me that Flash still has them beat ;)

-Rick

http://silverlight.net/

-Rick

One of the nice things with the Silverlight http://silverlight.net/ platform is that the playback model supports close captioning out of the box using a pretty standard XML markup. Expression Media Encoder will even do the heavy lifting and produce a web optimised version of the video with captioning and roll you a template based player.
For user produced content the hardest thing is getting people to remember to consider captioning. When you're working with studio produced content the hardest thing can sometimes be getting those assets to combine with the content!