4 ms·

Microsoft Emphasizes HTML5 Over Silverlight

24 points by dean 16y ago

TomOfTTB 16y ago
Everyone I've spoken to who went to Mix11 came out of it feeling better about Silverlight not worse. What I've heard is the message at Mix11 was that Silverlight was being presented as Microsoft's preferred native environment going forward while HTML5 was the preferred web development model. (Note there were no sessions devoted entirely to Microsoft's current desktop solution WPF) To that point they reiterated their support for the Mac meaning Silverlight is an environment that can be used for out of browser apps that run on both Mac and PC (much like Adobe AIR).
kenjackson 16y ago
That article was written after the first day of Mix. Silverlight 5 features weren't to be announced until the Day 2 keynote, which was almost all about Silverlight (on the phone and the web). Microsoft's position on HTML5 and Silverlight seem extremely clear to me. If you're doing cross-platform their focus is now HTML5. You won't see much of an investment on Silverlight for the Mac, for example. But if you're developing exclusively for Windows, then Silverlight is your best bet. Regarding WPF at Mix -- Mix is a web conference and WPF is NOT a web technology. Expect WPF sessions at PDC (a couple to a few at most), although I do think that WPF and Silverlight are merging (with Silverlight basically just catching up to WPF, with WPF being left to handle niche Win32 interop scenarios).
- flatulent1 16y ago
  Ballmer pretty much acknowledged the state of things "the world's going html5" back in late 2010. (Ballmer interview) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iI47b3a9cEI http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iI47b3a9cEI http://www.osnews.com/story/23966/Microsoft_Changes_Silverlight_Strategy_Focuses_on_HTML5 http://www.osnews.com/story/23966/Microsoft_Changes_Silverli...
- endtime 16y ago
  >ou won't see much of an investment on Silverlight for the Mac, for example. Can you resolve this with the following excerpt of Tom's comment? "To that point they reiterated their support for the Mac meaning Silverlight is an environment that can be used for out of browser apps that run on both Mac and PC (much like Adobe AIR)."
  - kenjackson 16y ago
    I'd be surprised if they did. Doesn't seem like it fits their Silverlight strategy. With that said, I wasn't at Mix and Tom was.
- nigelsampson 16y ago
  It's nice to see more comments around that there will never be a one solution to fit all the problems (as much as geeks seem to want to find one) especially from Microsoft.
Encosia 16y ago
I think the fact that they demoed IE10 running well on a 1.0ghz ARM, coupled with last year's emphasis on Windows 8 running on an ARM device, speaks volumes about the future. Windows has had HTML/CSS/JavaScript "native" apps since Vista. If IE10 + Win8 results in "native HTML5" being performant even on mobile devices, it seems likely that HTML5 is soon to be the new Silverlight in terms of simple out-of-browser apps.
- ryanpetrich 16y ago
  They've had HTML/CSS/JavaScript "native" apps since IE5: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTML_Application http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTML_Application (not that it was ever a good idea to use this feature)

24 points by dean 16y ago

Everyone I've spoken to who went to Mix11 came out of it feeling better about Silverlight not worse. What I've heard is the message at Mix11 was that Silverlight was being presented as Microsoft's preferred native environment going forward while HTML5 was the preferred web development model. (Note there were no sessions devoted entirely to Microsoft's current desktop solution WPF) To that point they reiterated their support for the Mac meaning Silverlight is an environment that can be used for out of browser apps that run on both Mac and PC (much like Adobe AIR).

kenjackson 16y ago

That article was written after the first day of Mix. Silverlight 5 features weren't to be announced until the Day 2 keynote, which was almost all about Silverlight (on the phone and the web). Microsoft's position on HTML5 and Silverlight seem extremely clear to me. If you're doing cross-platform their focus is now HTML5. You won't see much of an investment on Silverlight for the Mac, for example. But if you're developing exclusively for Windows, then Silverlight is your best bet. Regarding WPF at Mix -- Mix is a web conference and WPF is NOT a web technology. Expect WPF sessions at PDC (a couple to a few at most), although I do think that WPF and Silverlight are merging (with Silverlight basically just catching up to WPF, with WPF being left to handle niche Win32 interop scenarios).

flatulent1 16y ago
Ballmer pretty much acknowledged the state of things "the world's going html5" back in late 2010. (Ballmer interview) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iI47b3a9cEI http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iI47b3a9cEI http://www.osnews.com/story/23966/Microsoft_Changes_Silverlight_Strategy_Focuses_on_HTML5 http://www.osnews.com/story/23966/Microsoft_Changes_Silverli...
endtime 16y ago
>ou won't see much of an investment on Silverlight for the Mac, for example. Can you resolve this with the following excerpt of Tom's comment? "To that point they reiterated their support for the Mac meaning Silverlight is an environment that can be used for out of browser apps that run on both Mac and PC (much like Adobe AIR)."
- kenjackson 16y ago
  I'd be surprised if they did. Doesn't seem like it fits their Silverlight strategy. With that said, I wasn't at Mix and Tom was.
nigelsampson 16y ago
It's nice to see more comments around that there will never be a one solution to fit all the problems (as much as geeks seem to want to find one) especially from Microsoft.

Encosia 16y ago

I think the fact that they demoed IE10 running well on a 1.0ghz ARM, coupled with last year's emphasis on Windows 8 running on an ARM device, speaks volumes about the future. Windows has had HTML/CSS/JavaScript "native" apps since Vista. If IE10 + Win8 results in "native HTML5" being performant even on mobile devices, it seems likely that HTML5 is soon to be the new Silverlight in terms of simple out-of-browser apps.

ryanpetrich 16y ago
They've had HTML/CSS/JavaScript "native" apps since IE5: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTML_Application http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTML_Application (not that it was ever a good idea to use this feature)