6 ms·
Poll: Do you have Silverlight installed?
Just curious what the state of affairs is.
- cleverjake 16y agoYes, begrudgingly. Only for netflix. I really wish they offered another option, as it is incredibly frustrating to run windows JUST for netflix.
- briandu 16y agoThe winter olympics coverage required silverlight, I believe. That's why I put it on my computer.
- weel 16y agoI have Moonlight installed on Linux, so I checked "Yes" for lack of a "sorta" option. Moonlight seems to be good enough to get to the few Silverlight sites I need (several European TV broadcasters...)
- acqq 16y ago...and not good enough to play the Feynman lectures billg bought and now serves in the Silverlight-only form. I think the reason is that there's no DRM handling in Moonlight. I expect that a lot of Silverlight content will remain inaccessible in Moonlight.
- ntoshev 16y agoNow I feel less guilty for refusing to install Moonlight on my Ubuntu laptop and downloading Feynman lectures from isohunt torrents instead.
- acqq 16y agoSo I guess we can thank Bill Gates for personally financing ("Tuva project: powered by Silverlight") the nice argument to avoid Moonlight and Silverlight: there's still the DRM (not included in Moonlight) to worry about. Even if he fixes the mentioned site, I hope the awareness remains.
- weel 16y agoI have found that it helps sometimes, but not always, to right click the Moonlight plugin and choose "install microsoft codecs" from the menu.
- mike_h 16y agoNetflix requires it last I checked -- that's the only reason I'm aware of for having it.
- nuclear_eclipse 16y agoDoes Netflix work with Moonlight on Linux? I would loze to be using Netflix on my second monitor while playing games or just surfing the net, but they don't support Linux... :(
- Roboprog 16y agoJust so you all know, the Netflix browse / order interface works fine w/out Silverlight. But instant watch requires Silverlight with full DRM (so, alas, not Moonlight on Linux). This is the main reason I have a few dual boot PCs. I dislike Microsoft, but not to the point of shooting my own foot.
- reitzensteinm 16y agoI was about to answer no, but apparently I do: http://www.silverlightversion.com/ http://www.silverlightversion.com/ Does it install with Windows Update automatically or something?
- RK 16y agoFirefox 3.6 on Ubuntu 10.4 and the site said: Your installed version of Silverlight is: 0.0.00000.0 So I'm guessing no...
- reitzensteinm 16y agoI do not understand what's going through the mind of a developer who makes a site to display a software version number and does not have a special case for not installed. Incredible.
- barrettcolin 16y agoThe Steam hardware survey: http://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey http://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey now includes software, which includes Silverlight.
- simonw 16y agoI'm impressed that 3.21% of Windows users with Steam installed don't have the Flash Player.
- ElbertF 16y agoThey could be Linux/Mac users who solely boot into Windows to play games.
- rodion_89 16y agoOn both my Windows and Mac machines, I use Chrome which comes with Flash. So I didn't do a system wide install for Flash at all and thus Steam doesn't see that I have it installed anywhere even though I do.
- Tangurena 16y agoTo get rid of browser crashes, I browse without flash installed, or disabled, whichever is appropriate for the computer in use. With ad banners in flash, and several per page, all it takes is one poorly written flash app to take down all the browser tabs I've got open.
- barrettcolin 16y agoI think at one point the survey listed the number of samples; now it just seems to be percentages which isn't as useful. Anecdotally the survey has a lot of respondents (as in, a majority of the Steam userbase) but you never know.
- hx 16y agoRealistically the Steam survey is likely to be better & more accurate than anything else out there. (Thats aside from the obvious gamer bias)
- boards2x 16y agoNo. The only time I had it installed was when I upgraded Flip4Mac and didn't notice they've added it. You can disable it clicking on "Customize" during installation.
- moe 16y agoEvery time the "install silverlight?"-prompt comes up, I consciously refuse it. My reasoning goes like this: 1. It happens very rarely (less than once a month) and is usually triggered by some embedded eyecandy that I don't want to see anyways. I have not yet missed out on anything because I didn't have silverlight. 2. I have suffered through flash with all its browser-crashes, security problems and other annoyances for a decade. I strictly refuse to support the adoption a new plugin-technology that would only cause me more of the same pain. 3. Silverlight being a Microsoft technology, Microsoft being the company that makes my life miserable with MSIE, doesn't help my sympathy either. Thus, I know I'm just one little datapoint in everyone's server-logs, but I take care to ensure this datapoint will always read "Silverlight not available".
- JMiao 16y agoyes, netflix streaming.
- jasonkester 16y agoThere are just so few sites that require Sliverlight that I find myself mildly offended when I come across one that tries to make me install it. Who are you, telling me to install something just to view your website? Good day, sir. Funny that that's never been my experience with Flash. Flash sites are horrible and I avoid them if I can, but Flash can socially engineer its way onto my machine through cool little in-browser games, whereas Silverlight just wants to "enhance" my viewing of MSDN. I think Microsoft's BizSpark site actually requires Silverlight, so once every year or so, one of my machines gets to install it so that I can renew my MSDN subscription and get the latest version of VS.NET. That's enough of a reason for me, since it's something I absolutely can't do without, but I couldn't imagine expecting my users to install it just to visit my website.
- cies 16y agoi second this. if i have to install silverlight for a web app that'd be something els.. but silverlight on a public website is an offence. flash is too to some degree. somehow i think they will both not survive this decade.
- makmanalp 16y agoAFAIK netflix requires silverlight nowadays.
- tsuraan 16y agoI believe netflix PC streaming requires silverlight, but I know their general site doesn't. The silverlight requirement for streaming probably isn't something people usually even notice, since they also stream to roku, xbox, ps3, and a ton of televisions have the ability built-in.
- atomical 16y ago"Funny that that's never been my experience with Flash. Flash sites are horrible and I avoid them if I can, but Flash can socially engineer its way onto my machine through cool little in-browser games, whereas Silverlight just wants to "enhance" my viewing of MSDN." I have played quite a few Silverlight games. Why the attitude towards something that adds more functionality?
- frou_dh 16y agoI recently uninstalled both Silverlight and Flash. Hasn't really hindered me, so far. Though .NET is pretty cool so I'm not especially hostile to Silverlight.
- johncoltrane 16y agoYes. I'm somehow forced to have it since I do occasional SL work as a part of my job. That said, beside testing my stuff I've never encountered a Silverlight based site in the wild. Not that there are none, of course.
- davidw 16y agoI use 'moonlight' to watch bicycle racing on RAI3. If it weren't for that, it'd be gone in a second.
- andrewf 16y agoOn my desktop - yes. Thanks to fixplay.ninemsn.com.au - one of the Australian TV network's "watch our shows over the Internet" site. On my two laptops: no.
- AgentConundrum 16y agoApparently I do, but I really don't remember installing it.
- StavrosK 16y agoI guess yes, I have Mono...
- phamilton 16y agoNetflix watch instantly needs it. No way around that.
- aaronbrethorst 16y agoUse an iPad, iPhone, Xbox 360, Wii, or PS3.
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- recoiledsnake 16y agoInterestingly, all of those platforms are locked down by the companies that manufacture them. A case of the cure being worse than the disease.
- cristianca 16y agoI can say Yes and No. At work I have it installed, at home nope.
- warp 16y agoVideo streaming performance of silverlight seems better compared to flash, on those sites which support it (e.g. on demand viewing of dutch public tv, omroep.nl). So I have it installed on the machines I use to consume online media. I do not have flash nor silverlight installed on my development machines, because I can live without the distractions :)
- rue 16y agoYes, I have a similar experience with Eurosport's player. On my regular Macbook Flash streaming is somewhere around 80-90%, Silverlight manages at about 50%. I probably would not have subscribed to it if Silverlight had been a requirement at the time, though. I have no use for it otherwise.
- unhammer 16y agoThe only site I've wanted to use that wanted me to install Silverlight was tv2.no, but I managed to make it work with gecko-mediaplayer (though I had to right-click the movie, select settings, audio and correct audio channel in order to get sound...not sure why that couldn't be correctly set by default). Other than that, I've fortunately never needed Silverlight.
- yankcrime 16y agoIt's been sat there in my 'suggested Windows' updates ever since I installed Windows 7, and I haven't yet found a reason to actually acknowledge it. So, no.
- loewenskind 16y agoNo. We tried this already with Java applets. The fact that MS didn't cancel Silverlight the instant HTML5 started getting traction is yet another sign that they just can't follow what's going on (having made it to begin with is another).
- Qz 16y agoFrom what I hear, it's basically their dev platform for WP7, in the same way that Apple hasn't canceled CocoaTouch and google hasn't binned Android. HTML5 is not the be all end all of the internet (yet).
- loewenskind 16y agoSilverlight is like Java applets, not like CocoaTouch or Android. With such bizarre unrelated comparisons why didn't you also point out that Ford still makes the Mustang?
- contextfree 16y agoHuh? CocoaTouch is the standard API for iPhone, Silverlight is the standard API for Windows Phone 7. How is it an unrelated comparison?
- warbo 16y agoHaven't been near Silverlight and never plan to. Did tell someone to install Moonlight once so that they could watch ITV (UK) online, but the only alternative there was to pay the BBC a license fee for watching other people's channels (get_iplayer is perfect for the BBC's own)
- pepijndevos 16y agoAll sorts of apps sneak it onto my computer, just like Growl(which I had anyway). I just stopped bothering every time. So I think I'm using the version that shipped with Flip4mac on the last update.
- jlangenauer 16y agoI have it. Deliberately installed it as the UI people where I'm contracting insist on delivering UI mock-ups in something called SketchFlow - which doesn't seem too bad.
- btilly 16y agoWhat if we have multiple computers? I have a computer with Silverlight. Odds are that if you need Silverlight, the computer I'm sitting at doesn't have it. What should I vote? (I voted yes.)
- yread 16y agoYes and developing for it
- halo 16y agohttp://riastats.com/ http://riastats.com/
- robryan 16y agoI don't see the harm in it, it actually was built with JavaScript and then they decided to move away from that after version 1. I think the reality is that the kind of support you can get through it for certain applications is unlikely to eventuate in HTML5 any time soon and for .net developers that want any of this functionality it makes much more sense to use it than flash.
- mariusmg 16y agoJust a heads up...starting with Silverlight 4 there are apps now that run out of the browser and require SL installed.
- jharsman 16y agoI answered no, but http://www.silverlightversion.com/ http://www.silverlightversion.com/ claims I have 4.0 installed. Which is strange, beacause I contantly see little "Install Silverlight to view this video" buttons when browsing Microsoft sites. Maybe most Silverlight content requires a newer version or something? Or it just doesn't work in Firefox.
- contextfree 16y ago4 is the newest version and it should work fine in Firefox. Dunno what's up.
- boomhauer 16y agoI think this happens with some really early versions of silverlight applets not being compatible with the newer 4.0 stuff. I think
- jawee 16y agoIt doesn't work on any of my machines in active use, so no. I think I have Moonlight on one laptop, but I haven't had much success with it. At school where we have Windows, it is not deployed (still on IE6/7 and Flash 8, mind you).
- FraaJad 16y agoYes. On a mac too. I'm a netflix subscriber and NF requires Silverlight.
- Friedduck 16y agoI have it installed but disabled. I don't want another flash-like product to gain traction, but occasionally I have to visit MSFT sites that require it.
- bmj 16y agoI likely wouldn't have it installed, except for the fact I'm currently developing a Silverlight app (online editor for an in-house DSL). Actually, I probably would install it, if only because Netflix uses it for their online player.
- afshin 16y agoMicrosoft bundles Silverlight with every Flip4Mac update ... and I duly remove it each time.
- iuguy 16y agoOn some boxes, yes. On the one I'm using now, no.
- Kadrith 16y agoI do my best not to use any external plug-ins. If I find a site that looks really compelling I may consider it, but there is a lot that can be done without plug-ins. If someone isn't willing to put in the effort to create a native web site why should I put in the effort to install a plug-in?
- richardw 16y agoMy bank has an online trading environment that uses Silverlight. It's a fairly closed environment and the banking industry here is an oligopoly, so they get away with it. Frankly, I think that's how many of these things go. Intranet -> closed community -> specialist websites -> general web.
- tarellel 16y agoHeck no! I've got better garbage to install
- trezor 16y agoI find Silverlight less offensive and obtrusive than Flash, but probably not for the normal reasons. Since every single online advertiser out there uses Flash to make the most Flashy (no pun intended) ads to grab your attention, I promptly install Flashblock on any new machine I work on. Silverlight however seems to have too low adaptation for it to be useful or "bulletproof" for advertisers, so whenever I get on a site actually using Silverlight, it's for something I need or want (video, interactive games, apps, etc). I'm aware of that HTML5 covers part of that game pretty well by now, but still I find it non-obtrusive enough and generally don't mind. It's security-record and stability compared to Flash would be another reason not to mind it, but even to me, a techie, that's really secondary.
- PhrosTT 16y agoBrowser Penetration is at 62%... guess HN hates MS extra hard. http://www.riastats.com/ http://www.riastats.com/ And for all the haters... it's better than flash.
- ergo98 16y ago"And for all the haters... it's better than flash." Silverlight is a me-too Flash clone that came at a time when Flash is a barely-tolerated but waning evil. It is by a company that has a severe conflicts of interest problem. It isn't hate, and you don't have to be a hater, to see the incredible problem with it.
- boomhauer 16y agoon the plus side (and why I personally am using it): it allows a "real" language to be run in-browser. .Net code can now be used on the webserver, desktop form apps, in-browser...(I'd add mobile devices, but that part would be a bit embarrassing.).
- malandrew 16y agoNo, and I will never install Silverlight to use a site that requires it. It's bad enough that Flash is prevalent. The last thing we need is for Silverlight to become popular. Any site that uses Silverlight better have a real good justification for using it over HTML5/CSS3/JS.
- emilis_info 16y agoA couple of options are missing: "don't know" and "what is Silverlight"?
- billybob 16y agoNo. The light of web standards has been dawning for a while new, and stuff like Chrome Experiments shows how much potential HTML5 has. With standards gaining ground, the last thing I want to see is for Microsoft-controlled technology to again gain dominance on the web. So, no. I do not want their shiny toys. We can build better ones without them, and they won't contain lead.
- Tichy 16y agoFlash is just about to lose some it's grasp on the internet. Should we really let another plague of it's ilk rise to power?
- ihumanable 16y agoNetflix, that is the only reason. If Netflix instant streaming didn't require Silverlight I would never have installed it.
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- jhaglund 16y agoYes and No. No in my main Ubuntu desktop. Yes in my virtual box'd windows environment, for netflix.
- jnorion 16y agoI use it for streaming Netflix only. If there was another way I'd be all over it.