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Silverlight Exploits Up, Java Exploits Down, Says Cisco
angry tapir writes: Attempts to exploit Silverlight soared massively in late 2014 according to research from Cisco. However, the use of Silverlight in absolute terms is still low compared to the use of Java and Flash as an attack vector, according to Cisco's 2015 Annual Security Report. The report's assessment of the 2014 threat landscape also notes that researchers observed Flash-based malware that interacted with JavaScript. The Flash/JS malware was split between two files to make it easier to evade anti-malware protection. (The full report is available online, but registration is required.)
If Windows 7 supported HTML5 video for Netflix, Silverlight would be retired.
Priest: "Universe from nothing, no laws of physics, sped up time"+ huge discrepancies. Creationism? No. Big Bang Theory
We used Silverlight to build enterprise apps because it's most resembling to fully-functional desktop app platform - like client-server except the server side is built on OData service with row-level access control (by SQL expression rewriting) and clients simply query everything by LINQ, maintaining maximum control over everything except authentication/authorization.
It boosts development time significantly for building apps of the same functionality and does a lot of things which HTML5/JS cannot even maturely do yet, like binary data processing and really fast graphics rendering. If you take a look at their theme resource files, you'd notice that every UI controls and cool effects in Silverlight are actually complex vector shapes to be rendered in real-time, not fake image/bitmap used in typical websites because they're too slow to do anything serious.
But now it's dead.....
If a product requires a CD, the CD is almost sure to be crap.
Bad = Helping someone setup their Linksys router and discovering that since Belkin bought them (Belkin is remarkably inept, I think only 2 of their products ever worked for me and one of those was a cord!), the router setup web page (192.168.1.1) actually requires a very recent browser -- which precludes configuration using a mobile phone or iPad for no good reason --- and provides no way to NOT require a username and password to use the wireless.
And to use the router setup page at 192.168.1.1 you must install the CD! Hello incompetence! How does that work for Linux? Belkin is the worst.
Corporations have special skills to sabotage their own products.
Priest: "Universe from nothing, no laws of physics, sped up time"+ huge discrepancies. Creationism? No. Big Bang Theory
I build a new Windows 7 VM last week.
After the close to 750Mb of patches in the 'download and reboot' cycle, up pops Slitherlight (Like Slitherin in Harry Potter, not nice) as an optional download.
I do not want it but even after hiding it, like a bad penny it keeps on coming back.
Can we really try to get rid of this thing (and flash for that matter). The world has moved on and it is not needed anymore.
Extinguish ? Flash needs to die in a fire.
Why doesn't Netflix use Flash, at least as an alternative choice.
Netflix used to use Flash, but they moved to Silverlight in exchange for a seat on the board at Microsoft for their CEO. So they dropped Flash and went to Silverlight, which caused a lot of problems for a while which they eventually ironed out.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Forgive me, but what's bad with Java applets?
Security (the greatest downside imo), inability to (ever!) run on mobile devices, increased RAM use from pulling in a whole JVM, external dependency beyond a web-browser, immaturity of JavaFX. Historically Java applets would often cause a browser crash, but that seems not be a an issue these days (presumably as we've just got the horsepower to cope).
They're way more efficient than HTML+Javascript
JavaScript JIT compilers are pretty damn good these days. I suspect that you're right, but performance can be pretty good with web technologies. There are working audio/video-decoders written in JavaScript, for instance.
If you're worried about Oracle's treatment of the Java applet platform, choose a decent launcher/updater.
You mean OpenJDK?
Are you honestly asking what's wrong with having only one platform for development?
Yes, hence why I asked.
What's wrong with ANSI C as a single platform? Win32 as a single platform? Everthing lacking in HTML+Javascript is wrong with the web as a platform.
Well the standards are ever-growing. (And the technical barrier to creating a browser becomes ever more daunting, but I guess that's just the price we pay.)
And every disagreement on the best way of doing something which can't be alternatively implemented
It's called "the web". A mish-mash of incompatible technologies is not good for the web. On the other hand I kinda agree: I'd really like to see JavaScript die and be replaced (it's just awful), but it looks like we're stuck with it. There is an upside here though: stability of the web as a platform. There's one web, and it works on all sorts of devices. That's something that would be compromised by a plugins-for-everything web.