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Microsoft Prefers Flash To Silverlight
An anonymous reader writes "Microsoft still has not adopted Silverlight, and uses Flash all over its websites. 'Despite all the controversy over Microsoft using Silverlight to take over the rich internet market from Adobe Flash, the software giant seems to be not even trying. In fact, even most Microsoft web sites are using Flash instead of Silverlight.'"
water still wet
Who ever said something about dog food and eating it???
Most sites making commercials will probably stay with Flash and animated images as a backup unless Silverlight allows them to create yet more annoying CPU-demanding commercials.
If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
I hear this is supposed to be good for the overall market, you know the fostering of competition to force both to improve; but am I the only one with the sneaking suspicion that as consumers we are still going to get raped?
It's a bit of a no-brainer - MS still has to pay for development somehow. They have existing flash code and developers, why would they re-write and re-train?
Give it some time before making these stupid accusations. Just because they themselves have existing code and developers doesn't mean they are suggesting new development elsewhere shouldn't use the technology and be "ahead of the curve". I'm not saying silverlight is better - just that MS's lack of use of it doesn't suggest anything at this point in time.
I.O.U One Sig.
Seems more like they're taking their time on this one. More than likely, they'll wait long enough to include it as a default update push and once its ubiquitous on their platform THEN go ahead with changing across their sites. Of course, they'd have to be careful to avoid another anti-trust row.
The last thing they want is people going "wtf, microsofts site is broken!" because they don't realize its silverlight.
Ice Cream has no bones.
Silverlight install base is still too small. I'm sure they'll switch as soon as they'll get the critical mass.
Companies like to believe in their brand. There's nothing wrong with it and it would be bad for marketing if you didn't. MS produces great products as much as they do a few bad ones. In any case, I think they just need to put more thought into the the software and services they create. They have to realize that just because they make it doesn't mean people will use it (*cough* especially when users get to choose to use it or not).
Which is why I think the schema to buy more web-users by purchasing Yahoo is a flawed reasoning (if their intent was to buy Yahoo to begin with). Nobody is using Microsoft's search engine just like no one is using Silverlight - if the product doesn't live up to people's expectations or provide something new, they won't use it.
Isn't it logical to use Flash since almost nobody has Silverlight yet? MS needs people to be able to view their webpages, so it can sell its products.
-- Cheers!
I know I would...
Invenio via vel creo
It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.
somebody tag this haha!
Not trying to fanboying or anything, but I remember installing Silverlight on someones computer (Mac) and it was working flawlessly for videos, the equivalent of a real video player. I can't say the same for the Flash video players, for wich I have very bad experiences: unusable seeking and even unplayabe videos. My two cents.
JavaFX.com uses JavaScript and QuickTime to promote the benefits of JavaFX. No JVM needed.
(Of course, you still have to visit the Wikipedia article for an introduction in context.)
org.slashdot.post.SignatureNotFoundException: ewg
Why is Microsoft persuing 2D for the web and not 3D for the web? Adobe has both - Flash for 2D, Shockwave for 3D - but Adobe only aggressively markets Flash. Shockwave is the defacto platform for 3D only because nobody else is competing there. Microsoft has tons of expertise in 3D that Adobe doesn't. They write DirectX, play a large part in deciding the capabilities of graphics cards, and co-designed and market the Xbox. Microsoft might never be able to pry the 2D web market away from Adobe, but if MS puts their best efforts into 3D on the web, they might be able to dominate that as much as Adobe dominates 2D. Can't MS stop chasing established markets and create a new one that plays to their strengths?
I have to admit, some of the Silverlight sites I've seen so far have actually been kind of cool - the one that sticks out to me is the Hard Rock Memorabilia site at http://memorabilia.hardrock.com/
I'll never adopt Silverlight, or at least I'll wait until the bitter end (probably like I did with Macromedia Flash), mainly because I'm sick and tired of seeing their obtrusive "Install Silverlight" popup that you're forced to view every time you go onto their web site with Internet Explorer. That alone makes me hate it, and raises my... annoyance with Microsoft.
A perfect blurb for Slashdot. Bashes Microsoft. Claims competition is a "controversy." Mixes up pronouns. Makes up impressive sounding terminology like "the rich internet market." Shocked that different parts of a megacorporation uses different toolsets. Has no clue or firmly ignores that management of Microsoft departments are as segmented as possible for profit reasons, antitrust reasons and at the demand of the marketplace. Even gets the Microsoft-haters like me to go WTF?! and post a reply, driving up page hits.
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Wow, you mean switching from one animation format to another completely different animation format on one of the world's largest websites takes time?!
WTF! SOMEONE ALERT SLASHDOT!
I write bullshit
Call me when you see them deploying new sites that use Flash instead of SilverLight. The fact that they haven't gone back and redone older properties is not surprising; who would?
Hell, they have old SDK documentation (Cabinet SDK) still live that is in RTF format.
At first glance I thought it said
Microsoft Prefers Fleshlights
Microsoft's site dedicated to getting people to switch to Server 2008 prudently does not run on Server 2008. This is nothing new.
http://toolbar.netcraft.com/site_report?url=http://www.getthefacts.com
Microsoft doesn't use its source control solution, Visual Source Safe, for version control.
IIS6 is a good choice for them - it has the best security record of any web server in history. Traditionally Microsoft has sought out the best solutions while pushing others to use lesser solutions. It's just how they operate.
Umm, if 95% of their visitors have Flash installed and 10% (or what?) have SilverLight installed, well, they would be idiots if they didn't use Flash...
>uses Flash all over it's websites
It's its, not it's.
For the last time, "it's" is the contraction for IT IS. ITS is the possessive. It always blows my mind how nerds who learn 15 different languages to move a number around in memory are suddenly baffled by the apostrophe.
"uses Flash all over it's websites"
Good job with failing to grasp the subtleties of basic sixth-grade grammar, editors.
I had but a simple dream, to destroy all humans.
Silverlight works just fine on my web site and doesn't crash anything. MS is pushing a lot of content providers to try Silverlight, so the install base should go up this summer.
MS lost its edge in the OS war through complacency and slow roll-out performance. I see Adobe doing the same with Flash.
this is similar to star fleets preference to warp drive over a quantom slip stream system for travel... they have the means but no one knows why they dont just get it together and party
WWPD - What Would Picard Do?
Unless by "No JVM needed," you mean "No JVM needed apart from an already installed JVM."
Shouldn't this be filed under "department-of-redundancy-department" instead? I think I read the same thing thing twice in in the story story.
kthx
Just yesterday I went to Windows Updates for my XP box, and it asked if I wanted to install Silverlight, that it had new features that would make the Windows Update experience more interesting/efficient/whatever, blah blah blah. So I installed it. I didn't notice the "experience" being any better or worse, maybe a little more "slick". But if they're starting with Windows Update, that's a good way to get at least a subset of the visitors to MS' website (not everyone does manual updates) to install it.
disclaimner: I am drunk
Silverligfht is tops and in windows operability is superceding flash. for windows-targetting apps, why would you not use it? Pls avoid all *nix specific bias.
Do tell,
(I'm sympathetic to your pet peeve, though...)
Silverlight is starting to show up in more places during random surfing these days, most recently the blizzard store
I am posting this from elinks (the version w/Ecmascript support).
Frankly, I was also of that opinion, that non-graphical browsing would be OK. Unfortunately, since my daughter has started using the second computer, I've had to browse (mainly Slashdot) from my ~10-year-old half-broken laptop with 64 MiB of RAM. I understand the disadvantages of console mode browsing quite well now. For example, on Slashdot, I can read the posts, reply, and even moderate, but I can't get a good feel for the inter-post organization, e.g., which posts are replies to which other posts, or understand what are all the replies to a given post. There is just not enough real estate on my console screen, even if the site were optimized for using elinks.
Of course, some would blame the chicken-and-egg dilemma for most of this (since most sites are not designed for console mode browsing).
Silverlight 1 is a Javascript based - version 2 will support the .NET CLR.
If all you want to do is play videos with cool effects, then Silverlight 1 will do it for you, but for anything else you are probably better of waiting for version 2.
/Lars
Mod parent down, and send him to spend a week at twitter's house.
I am a contractor working on a high profile Microsoft web application at the moment and we are using Flash in it.
The decision is nothing against Silverlight, we have discussed using Silverlight.
The issue is with the skills that the designers who are contracting have.
Microsoft do use a lot a Silverlight across their web applications, try the downloads beta for example.
You will see a lot more of it being used once there are more designers with experience using it.
Flash has got over ten years of being in the marketplace and finding designers with Flash skills is a lot easier than finding designers with Sliverlight experience.
I don't think this says anything against Microsoft's commitment to Silverlight.
What's purple and commutes? An Abelian grape.
Flash still isn't completely OS X-compatible, either. It's ridiculous to think that Adobe, who has a large OS X user base, would leave so many of their customers with such an atrocious product. Flash slows down my Safari on a daily basis and crashes it occasionally, causing other Safari users with the same problem to think Safari (or Firefox on OS X) is an inferior browser when, in fact, Adobe just needs to get their act together.
It's not all broken:
http://dilbert.com/fast/2008-05-10/
This is also pretty nice:
http://dilbert.com/rss/
Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
I am going to come right out and say, whoever posted this story was an idiot. (notice they posted it anon..)
Microsoft is a huge company with dozens of divisions, and thousands of teams. Development cycles for a company like this can last years. Don't expect them to adopt some new technology like silverlight on every single public site they posess in a heartbeat.
Moreover, just suggesting that they would re-write an existing portal (that may not even really need SL technology) simply because a new technology came out makes no sense. Programmer time is expensive, so what business justification do you have spending money to rebuild a portal that is functioning just fine in the first place?
MS does stupid shit that they deserver to be bashed for, such as the whole Open XML fiasco. Posting stories like this just destroys the sites credibility, and makes look like you engage in mindless MS bashing, rather than really looking at issues that are critical to tech savy people.
HA! I just wasted some of your bandwidth with a frivolous sig!
Microsoft has hundreds of groups worldwide that have their own Web sites -- country-specific, product-specific, market-specific -- and much of the Web site design work is outsourced to other companies. Even if Microsoft mandated that Silverlight had to be used immediately, the switchover would take a huge investment in time and money. Time, because all those third parties need to be trained, and money, because there are huge numbers of old pages that would need to be retrofitted. Posting an AC's submission of a blog opinion does not qualify as news. Might as well submit a typing exercise from the proverbial band of infinite monkeys -- it would have a much better chance of being newsworthy.
The problem is not that Microsoft is trying to introduce a new technology. The problem is that Microsoft is extremely adversarial toward customers, sometimes, in my opinion. For example, Microsoft will soon begin FORCING people to install Silverlight if they want to download files from microsoft.com/downloads/.
At least the first 2 versions of Microsoft products usually have very severe bugs. For example, Windows XP and Windows XP SP1, and Windows Vista and Windows Vista SP1 were or are full of grief for administrators.
Customers don't want to be beta testers for Microsoft, any longer.
After Microsoft has forced a significant number of its less knowledgeable users to install Silverlight, Microsoft salesmen will begin talking about "significant market share", if the past is any guide.
"I think Flash has just gone too far down the wrong route, as application development in it seems like a hack." My experience with Macromedia is that it was always a sloppy company. Unforunately, Adobe management seems to be malfunctioning recently.
Newsflash: getting Linux to actually install takes a team of experts.
Ok, my quip isn't all that fair, but neither is complaining about the PRERELEASE version of Silverlight on Linux.
It's easy to grow starting from a base of
On the other hand, MS could follow Apple's lead and sneak Siverlight in as a default "updated" like Apple did with Safari. But that would be unethical (unless your company starts with an "A").
http://dilbert.com/fast/2008-05-10/ Nice, I did not know about that! Mods! This is also pretty nice:
http://dilbert.com/rss/ I'm subscribed.
It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.
My comments about Adobe's management were intended to apply to before Flex 3, which apparently fixes problems.
Since they use FrontPage, I'm sure they're just waiting for the silverfish integration to make things easier on their developers.
;)
Creationists are a lot like zombies. Slow, but powerful and numerous. And they all want to eat our brains.
See this Flex development example.
...a Silverlightblock plugin.
I disagree. I'm the CTO at an interactive agency that is building a large enterprise platform for a major Fortune 500 consumer goods company that owns dozens of common household brands. Due to the size of the engagement, and the fact that it will be a showcase of the latest and greatest Microsoft technologies, Microsoft is very involved, and we have direct access to its various product teams. We've already decided that initial releases will use Flash 9 and Flex 3 rather than Silverlight, but I can't get Microsoft to shut up about Silverlight. They are pushing it very hard, and for some meetings, I've actually had to mandate that the topic of Silverlight is off-limits. Make no mistake, Microsoft is pushing Silverlight as hard as they can.
Are you proud of taking a paycheck to be so sloppy? Of course your entire premise is raw, unpolished, content-free flamebait. But good flamebait should still use correct punctuation.
we will end no whine before its time
There is no need to invoke the Mods.
They, like the Gods, will do as they will.
Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
http://blog.dennyboynton.com/post/Why-is-Microsoft-So-Slow-to-Adopt-Silverlight.aspx
My video compression blog
. (Period)
They, like the Gods, will do as they will. Are they stiff like rods? Swim like cods?
It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.
I didn't think it was _that_ bad.
Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
Does anybody want a peanut?
It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.
I just installed my MSDN copy of Vista on VirtualBox - 5 CDs and NO .NET on it. How sad... When I buy a machine from Dell it does have Java on it though....
both technologies suck
can we just move along?
or was I the only one who saw that...[slinks away in shame]
sig sig sig siggy sig
What's even better is when you look at pictures of people at work in Redmond, you see nearly all of them (at least the developers it seems) with Apple laptops...... hmmmmm.... food for thought.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,143232-page,1/article.html
I am sure the olympics is a big website in terms of content and viewers. This will be enough to showcase its worth if done well.
Liberty freedom are no1, not dicks in suits.
The person who posted this is an idiot, its just flaimbait. Silverlight is still a brand new technology. They released Silverlight 1 about a yaer ago, which only supports javascript and which is basically just a precursor of things to come. Silverlight 2 (which supports the .NET framework) just reached BETA in March, and will have its final release being said.
Given these facts, why/how would/could they instantaneously transform all of their webpages to a beta product? It has nothing to do with what they "like", its just business.
the so-called
the so-called
the so-called
the so-called
the so-called
the so-called
the so-called
that brain-dead Mods stupidly rate as +5 Insightful. Get an enema clue Mods! There's not a goddamn thing insightful about whining. I don't want to read some asshole's post lamenting how much better
If you don't like
BUT KEEP YOUR FUCKING WHINY-ASS COMPLAINTS ABOUT SLASHDOT TO YOURSELF!
BTW, for any Mod that positively rates my rant here because they think it would be funny/ironic, just beware that I will hunt you down, and I will leave a smelly dead cat on your porch. would it be ok to moderate it +1 informative?
Obviously Microsoft can't rewrite every page of every website overnight. If they launch new content using flash instead of silverlight though, then that would be about as amusing as the time they were caught running their websites on Apache/BSD. (^-^)
...on second thoughts, never mind. forget I spoke. These aren't the droids...
...then stinky flash could go to hell in a handbasket for all I care. Call me fickle if you will, but I'm not. flash ~= silverlight in my books.
If they fail to make at least a token effort to use their own technology, how could even the most dyed in the wool MS fanboy VBscripting MCSE type seriously consider using their technology?
p.s. If Novell (moonlight) or some such believable entity made something that fully supported silverlight on non-x86 architectures though...
thx e
*laughs* MollyB, thanks for a great comment.
8 of 13 people found this answer helpful. Did you?
Wow what a great piece of shit.
In my opinion, Microsoft would love every website to have Silverlight. Look at their recent LOC deal with Silverlight. Bookmark boycottnovell.com to keep up on the latest with facts and figures not emotional bullshit stories.
"Silverlight" in Runescape is a sword used to slay a demon, think about that for a second, flash being the obvious "demon".
Do we have to dig in dumpsters again like Oracle's CEO had done to find the truth about Microsoft?
Microhoo would've been Silverlight Flickr, del.icio.us, and everything else former yahoo! just so your anus is nice and silverfishy
I bet Microsoft preferred Netscape to IE in the IE wars too,right ? Such useless bullshit propoganda, fuck this shit!
I haven't had a problem with Adobe Flash on Linux later. It's certainly a hell of a lot better than Silverlight
I for one don't see any reason why Microsoft would favour Windows, either now, or into the future.
I noticed the other day that you cannot access TechNet downloads from a Mac OS machine. This is an example of planned non-compatibility with Apple. Has anyone else noticed this? The cross platform compatibility is getting worse. I guess they are not happy unless you are running their latest OS, their latest browser, and their latest GUI enhancement. What a bunch of pricks. VMWare notwithstanding, I just cannot bring myself to load ANY microsoft modules on my Mac. Not even IE, and certainly not a virtualized OS. I admit I am not quite sure what todays benefit from SL is. I am saying NO to microsoft about the .NET runtime, IE, SL, and Microsoft Office for the Mac. Gee they sure are pushy. There seems to be more and more situations where the Microsoft site is not browser neutral.
Does this have any relevance with people who have Javacript disbabled for most web sites?
If you allow people to run programs on your computer you are asking for trouble. Unfortunately most people are unaware of this,
I believe they switched their download center website over to silverlight quite a while ago. They used to bug you to install it and "test out the beta" version of their site if they hadn't left you a cookie the last time you visited. I wonder what happen
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