Microsoft Killing Silverlight?

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Microsoft Killing Silverlight?

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday November 9, 2011 @08:27AM from the so-long-farewell-Auf-wiedersehen-goodbye dept.

SharkLaser writes "Silverlight 5 might be last version released by Microsoft. Several industry insiders and partners for the last few weeks have heard from their own Microsoft sources that there won't be new versions released after Silverlight 5. Status on service packs and support for Silverlight is unclear, as Microsoft haven't yet released lifecycle support end date even for the previous Silverlight 4. By their support page they will give full year head-up before ending support. With Adobe ending development of Flash for mobile browsers and Microsoft ending development of Silverlight, HTML5 video looks a lot more promising. But will content providers be able to give out their material without DRM and how does HTML5 perform with non-video side of Flash and Silverlight?"

14 of 324 comments (clear)

Min score:

Reason:

Sort:

And... by TheP4st · 2011-11-09 08:29 · Score: 5, Insightful

...nothing of value were lost.

--
"I have downloaded hundreds and hundreds of records, why would I care if somebody downloads ours?" Robin Pecknold
1. Re:And... by muon-catalyzed · 2011-11-09 08:51 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  HTML5 will get crippled down soon over 'security considerations' just wait a few months... Flash was really a dangerous hybrid that allowed apps on the web, they do not want web apps eating your real paid apps lunch. This strangely binds all, Apple, Microsoft and even Adobe, pawing the way for the appstore only deliveries for software and securing their corporate cut.
2. Re:And... by Anonymous Coward · 2011-11-09 10:18 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  Adobe Flash was like having another proprietary browser inside the browser. Nothing the browser makers could do would lock it down (except for unloading the plugin). The advantage of HTML5 is that Mozilla/Google/Apple/Microsoft can place restrictions on how subfeatures are implemented. Out-of-tab & off-page animations can be halted. Storage can be blocked for cross-site requests. Video can refuse to play automatically. Canvas can require explicit permission. Shaders can be statically verified & limited to a stricter subset of GLSL. Etc.
Netflix by QuietLagoon · 2011-11-09 08:31 · Score: 4, Insightful

Doesn't Netflix use Silverlight for streaming? Will Netflix move to some other technology?
1. Re:Netflix by imamac · 2011-11-09 08:33 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  They do indeed use Silverlight. Obviously they will move to much successful Flash.
2. Re:Netflix by MrEricSir · 2011-11-09 08:39 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  Yup. Would anyone have installed Silverlight if it hadn't been for Netflix?
  
  --
  There's no -1 for "I don't get it."
3. Re:Netflix by Guspaz · 2011-11-09 08:58 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  Except Adobe is clearly moving towards killing off flash. They've announced the death of mobile flash in favour of HTML5, and it seems likely that desktop flash will eventually follow.
  After all, it doesn't really matter to Adobe what runtime is used. They don't make money off people downloading the Flash runtime. They do make money off selling the flash designer software, which costs hundreds of dollars, and the streaming server solutions. What difference does it make if Adobe's software is spitting out stuff that runs in the flash runtime or HTML5?
  My concern is that HTML5 is clearly not up to the level where it has feature parity (or stability/consistency) with Flash or Silverlight. For example, HTML5 currently has no agreed upon standard for dynamic audio. Sure, it can play a sound or music file, but if you want to actually generate or process audio, that's impossible. Mozilla and WebKit both have their own proprietary competing APIs to do this, but neither is final yet, and certainly not a standard.
  Given a few years, HTML5 will probably be able to replace Flash/Silverlight, but clearly not yet!
4. Re:Netflix by ackthpt · 2011-11-09 09:29 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  In this case that would be a step in the right direction. Flash is much more widely available than Silverlight is at present.
  Flash might be more widely available, but the Silverlight performance is clearly better, so it would be a step in the direction of lower video quality and higher processor and memory utilization.
  Wow. That would be about as bad as the VCR market adopting VHS over the vastly superiour quality of Betamax!
  
  --
  
  A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
This is hardly a shock... by RocketRabbit · 2011-11-09 08:35 · Score: 4, Insightful

Flash and Silverlight represent the mid-1990s way of doing things with third party browser addons. Back when we needed crutches like these, they were useful. The leg has healed, though, so it's time to throw the crutches under a bus.
Content producers should just suck up and use non-DRM video streams. They should all know by now that both Flash and Silverlight video "protections" have been circumvented just like Blu-Ray, DVD, etc and that there is really no technological recourse against this.
1. Re:This is hardly a shock... by Alkonaut · 2011-11-09 09:08 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  Flash and Silverlight represent the mid-1990s way of doing things with third party browser addons. Back when we needed crutches like these, they were useful. The leg has healed, though, so it's time to throw the crutches under a bus.
  No. We never needed flash to play internet video. If you link to a video directly, it will play in your system's default video player.
  That's downloading a video file and playing it. That is the same as 1990's video. In 2011 I want to be able to seek in my video file (or watch live streams), I want autmatic adjustment of bitrate depending on my bandwidth, and whoever I'm downloading the video from want's to make sure I pay my subscription to watch this game. There are basically only a few technologies that handle this. And html5 isn't one of them.
Good riddance by Hortensia+Patel · 2011-11-09 08:37 · Score: 4, Insightful

The idea that a general-purpose applet platform, with all the attendant security risks, is worth keeping simply to play DRM-encumbered video strikes me as utterly daft. It's like keeping a rabid rottweiler in your kid's playroom so that they'll have something to draw.
1. Re:Good riddance by sexconker · 2011-11-09 09:03 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  The idea that a general-purpose applet platform, with all the attendant security risks, is worth keeping simply to play DRM-encumbered video strikes me as utterly daft. It's like keeping a rabid rottweiler in your kid's playroom so that they'll have something to draw.
  Silverlight is not just for video. Nether is Flash.
  Silverlight's DRM can be harnessed by anyone seeking to make (get this!) secure applications.
  When it's something you don't understand, it's an "attendant security risk".
  When it's security that prevents you from stealing shit, it's DRM.
Can you back up this claim? by Zontar_Thing_From_Ve · 2011-11-09 08:41 · Score: 5, Informative

Flash and Silverlight represent the mid-1990s way of doing things with third party browser addons. Back when we needed crutches like these, they were useful. The leg has healed, though, so it's time to throw the crutches under a bus.
Content producers should just suck up and use non-DRM video streams. They should all know by now that both Flash and Silverlight video "protections" have been circumvented just like Blu-Ray, DVD, etc and that there is really no technological recourse against this.
Really? Do tell how exactly those Silverlight protections have been circumvented. Unless you are talking about a streaming media recorder which simply records the stream as it plays on your PC, I am not aware of any way to defeat Silverlight DRM. The use of separate protected streams for audio and video is fiendishly clever and I've never heard of a successful way to crack it. A video forum where I regularly participate gets posts all the time asking how to record Netflix streams and nobody has ever suggested anything but a streaming media recorder.
Re:What about Video?? by randallman · 2011-11-09 10:02 · Score: 5, Informative

Sorry. You're just wrong about the progressive download thing. And it's not in the scope of HTML5 to define bitrate or fragmented delivery. Fragmented delivery is turf for HTTP and bitrate is for the browser or embedded player.
Read:
14.35.2 Range Retrieval Requests
HTTP retrieval requests using conditional or unconditional GET methods MAY request one or more sub-ranges of the entity, instead of the entire entity, using the Range request header, which applies to the entity returned as the result of the request:
Range = "Range" ":" ranges-specifier
Please read the HTTP 1.1 RFC
http://www.w3.org/Protocols/rfc2616/rfc2616-sec14.html