The gradual shift in strategy has actually been evident for a while. With Silverlight 3, they introduced the ability to run outside the browser as a desktop app

The gradual shift in strategy has actually been evident for a while. With Silverlight 3, they introduced the ability to run outside the browser as a desktop app, and with Silverlight 4, they placed a lot more emphasis on this scenario and less on in-browser scenarios. The point of writing a Windows desktop app in Silverlight is that not only is your code more portable (relative to a native Win32 or full .NET/WPF app), but SL apps are like iOS apps in that they are isolated from each other, easy to update/service, etc. If Microsoft introduces a Windows app store soon as is strongly rumored, it will probably feature prominently. I think what has most developers upset is not so much the substance of the message, which most of them already knew, but how it's being picked up in the media (for which Microsoft's delivery of the message is to blame). The media don't really care about development frameworks, so to them Silverlight-the-browser-plugin (the part they see) = Silverlight. Therefore if Silverlight is being de-emphasized as a browser plugin, it means Silverlight is dead, so that's going to be the headline, and CIOs etc. who only read headlines are going to see that and decide not to allow Silverlight development, even out-of-browser.