Perhaps you’ve gone to Windows Update recently or even visited the microsoft.com home page. You noticed something called Microsoft Sliverlight. Like me, you probably installed it. Then you probably noticed that your computer wouldn’t start, or something equally weird. So you did a System Restore. That leads to the question, what the heck is Microsoft Silverlight and do you really need it?
The short answer: Microsoft Silverlight is the Evil Empire’s attempt to knock off Adobe Flash.
Silverlight (which is a bitch to type) is a web browser plug-in. It provides features in a weak attempt to do what Adobe Flash does.
What’s Adobe Flash?
Glad you asked! Adobe Flash, or just “Flash” for short, provides animated and automated content for web pages. Just about any video you see on the web (including here on Wambooli) is a Flash animation. Web-based games are mostly Flash. And nearly all web page advertising your see is Flash.
Flash, Flash, Flash. All that Flash-iness has caught Microsoft’s attention.
Adobe pretty much has the web animation market cornered. Well, cornering markets is really what Microsoft thinks it’s all about. Adobe is too big to consume, so Microsoft instead toys with them by introducing a competing technology. And, as is tradition, Microsoft’s product is an inept, bloated, and awkward attempt to do what’s already being done effective and well.
Am I being mean? No! After all, most of the animated content on Microsoft’s own web page is done by Flash, not Silverlight. (Tee-hee!)
Knowing the Microsoft playbook, their next series of step will most likely be as follows:
- Adopt some made-up Web-plug-in-animation standard. A standard that will apply 100 percent to Silverlight but not at all to Flash.
- Rig Windows/Internet Explorer so that running Flash becomes slow and unreliable. Adobe will point this out, and:
- Microsoft will be investigated by the U.S. Justice Dept. (once again) for monopolistic behavior. At the same time:
- Microsoft will entice key software engineers away from Adobe with lucrative employment deals.
- Adobe’s stock will suffer.
In the end, Adobe will survive, but having to fight Microsoft is not why Adobe went into business, so the only party who really suffers is the consumer.
And that, boys and girls, is the answer to the Silverlight Question.
Pretty cynical, Dan, but cynicism is warranted when dealing with Microsoft.
I think that some competition with Adobe will actually help them, rather than hurt them. It gives them more incentive to improve their product and if anyone has the ability to take on Adobe’s monopoly on the animation market, it’s Microsoft. I don’t care who’s stock suffers. Now, rigging IE so Flash doesn’t work right would be a problem, and they’re certainly not above that.
So…a little different angle. And I’m by no means a Microsoft fanboy… 🙂 I just like the free-market system and competition as a way to spur innovation.
Your thoughts?
Comment by jamh51 — May 12, 2008 @ 11:46 am
Well, I didn’t install it and I notice that I’m not “missing” anything on the Microsoft site, nor do I see the prompts to download Silverlight like I do with Flash. That’s actually the tipping point. I remember back when Flash first appeared; you’d be prompted to download or update Flash often. Today you hardly notice it, except for the IMDb where Flash ads annoyingly appear over the text I’m reading. But I digest…
The problem with the Battle To Be is that the consumer *can* lose out. A feature war would simply slow down the web. A battle where IE wouldn’t run Flash would lead to a lot of annoyed consumers. Competition is good, but Microsoft often competes on a sneaky level instead of on the merits of its products. Flash was a clever innovation. I just fail to see anything clever about Silverlight, other than it’s a me-too product. Given Microsoft’s penchant for bulky coding, I’m bereft of other reasons why Microsoft thinks the product is needed.
Thank you for your comments and insight!
Comment by admin — May 12, 2008 @ 12:27 pm
If IE doesn’t run flash, wouldn’t that just drive people to another browser, like firefox? Would MSoft really go to that extent? Or can they use something more subtle to take on Flash (maybe something real clever that can be done in Silverlight – like running regular Windows apps from a browser?)
Comment by sriksrid — May 12, 2008 @ 9:41 pm
I don’t think IE would disable Flash. It’s a plug-in, so they’d have to put something in the code that was specific to find and make Flash not work. They’ve done that before and got caught red-handed (thanks to yours truly). No, I think you’re correct when you say that it would be subtle. In the past (and presently) they declare some “standard” and then announce that because such-and-such software doesn’t adhere to the so-called standard it cannot be fully supported. Having Silverlight do something spectacular that Flash could not would be great — actually admirable. But is Microsoft capable of that?
Comment by admin — May 12, 2008 @ 9:48 pm
“But I digest…”
Umm..ok! Good for you 😉
I think you meant digress, but I prefer this… it really stood out the first time I read it and got me awake
Comment by sriksrid — May 14, 2008 @ 12:30 am