Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

First Look At Microsoft Silverlight 3

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the and-html-5-to-rule-them-all dept.

snydeq writes "InfoWorld's Martin Heller finds Silverlight 3 gaining ground on Adobe Flash, Flex, and AIR in all the areas where Silverlight 2 had lagged. No longer do developers need to build desktop WPF apps based loosely on corresponding Silverlight RIAs, as Silverlight 3 adds the ability to install Silverlight apps on the desktop, update them in place, detect Net connectivity state changes, and store data locally and securely. Moreover, solid Expression Blend 3 and Visual Studio 2010 betas provide developers with much improved tools to create Silverlight RIAs. '"I do not expect many Adobe shops to give up their Flash, Flex, and AIR for Silverlight 3. I do expect many Microsoft shops to do more RIAs with Silverlight now that it's more capable and to create lightweight browser/desktop Silverlight 3 applications where they might have fashioned heavier-weight Windows Forms or WPF client applications," Heller says.'"

2 of 228 comments (clear)

  1. I'll pass. by thetoadwarrior · · Score: 0, Troll

    Silverlight is awful. I hope it dies a quick death soon.

    1. Re:I'll pass. by im_thatoneguy · · Score: 0, Troll

      So what should they do?

      Slow down and stop offering new technology so that the Open Source guys can keep up at a slower pace?

      or

      Should they devote resources to a market with less than 3% market penetration and is largely composed of individuals who wouldn't install it simply because of the brand it's associated with?

      I don't know how much more helpful Microsoft could be to the Moonlight team short of developing in house. And with the attitude of most Linux users out there combined with their numbers I wouldn't waste very much time trying to make them happy either.

      Silverlight is an application largely targeted at the desktop. Its advantages are more interactive and friendly GUIs. If you start with 3% of computers running Linux you can probably shave off a half percentage of that for servers. Then you can probably shave off another % for zealots who won't use it because it's Microsoft. Then you can probably shave off another half percentage for the people who don't want a GUI and are perfectly happy to run everything through bash and CLI. These same people probably haven't installed flash either because good ol' HTML is all they ever wanted. So you're left with like 1% of the market who would use Silverlight on Linux.