« Widget economy | Main | Why I don't use Gmail »
May 23, 2007
Silverlight understanding
Silverlight understanding: BBC has an article here describing the late-May view of Microsoft's push into browser plugins. They pick up that the big win is in enabling .NET shops to do those Flash-y types of sites they've seen, but I think they get it wrong on the actual costs: "At a stroke that vast army of developers, who Microsoft has always assiduously courted, suddenly got the ability to write code that can be used to power rich Web 2.0 sites... Suddenly, said Mr Ozzie, developers had a 'new choice' for creating those compelling futuristic web applications. All those developers no longer need to go through the tricky route of converting their original code to a format that Flash can understand -- Silverlight will understand it untranslated." (That last line is suspect... the plugin uses "MS.NET", but what can be done with "MS.NET" in the browser will not be the same as what MS-only shops have been doing with "MS.NET" on the desktop or on their servers. There are also learning costs for a delivery channel, atop the learning costs for the development methodology -- the security scope alone requires some time for familiarity. Their big win is in tying new concepts to familiar old concepts while learning.) Cute line: "It goes without saying that a browser running a Silverlight application needs a Microsoft server to hand over the rich content." MS servers are one thing, but it's likely more important MS eventually ends up as the advertising channel, and gains personalization data for that app's audience -- a server they can sell today; a service they can sell tomorrow. (I think the BBC article may also be neglecting to disclose some prior relationships.) Other essays open in my browser: Tom Bray, Nelson King, a markup comparison, Dare Obasanjo, Pete Lacey, "ttl news", Jon Rose, Anne Zelenka. After Sun's JavaFX announcement, everyone realizes that the ground has shifted in some way, but there's still a lot of thinking about what the new environment might mean.
Posted by JohnDowdell at May 23, 2007 08:17 AM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://weblogs.macromedia.com/mtadmin/mt-tb.cgi/8745
Comments
Actually there's one inaccuracy in the BBC article - the only time you'd ever need a Microsoft server is if you want to offer streaming media content. Silverlight-based applications can be hosted on ASP.NET, Apache/Linux or any other HTTP server: there's no limitations or restrictions (and of course this includes media delivered via progressive download).
Do you think the BBC is biased towards us, JD?
Best wishes,
Tim Sneath
Group Manager, Silverlight and WPF Evangelism, Microsoft Corp.
Posted by: Tim Sneath at May 23, 2007 02:11 PM
"Actually there's one inaccuracy in the BBC article - the only time you'd ever need a Microsoft server is if you want to offer streaming media content. "
Ok, that part was wrong.
"it's likely more important MS eventually ends up as the advertising channel, and gains personalization data for that app's audience"
so this is correct?
Helloooo Winston Smith and 1984...
Posted by: Eric Arthur Blair at May 23, 2007 03:58 PM