22 ms·

"Web developers attending the conference will need to see how the new browser functions, especially with respect to its all-new support for Direct2D rendering (

"Web developers attending the conference will need to see how the new browser functions, especially with respect to its all-new support for Direct2D rendering (a Windows-only feature that has potential to flatten its competition), as well as improved support and functionality with Silverlight (a cross-platform feature)." Read: "We know the house has no foundation, but it's okay, because look at all the sweet shit we added! There's a windvane on the roof, and we gave 'er a new coat of paint, and we even added on a sexy garage in which you can only park Ford cars! Cool, huh?!"

kevingadd 17y ago
To be fair, Direct2D and Silverlight are actually potentially quite useful features: Direct2D is a hardware acceleration layer for 2D graphics. If it's fully integrated into IE that means we might finally be able to get a full quality <canvas> implementation in IE (Even if we still have to build it ourselves with JS) - way better than the current VML based hacks. Silverlight also gives developers a nice alternative to Flash if all they need to do is get access to things the browser doesn't expose yet. It's still not as good as pure js/html, but it's at least got functioning open source implementations (unlike Flash).
- dandelany 17y ago
  Yes, but Direct2D is proprietary and Windows-only, and Silverlight has <50% adoption...