Question: Is silverlight really part of "the web"? For that matter, is Flash? (Were applets?) It seems to me that "the web" consists of things built around

Question: Is silverlight really part of "the web"? For that matter, is Flash? (Were applets?) It seems to me that "the web" consists of things built around W3C standards, to a first approximation. Just because something plugs into a browser doesn't make it part of "the web"; that's just a sneaky way to put a thick client on the user's computer. I'd argue that Silverlight _might_ be the future, but it's not the web. (Whether that would suit MSFT just fine is, of course, open to speculation.)