Microsoft v. Adobe - the big fight LIVE!
Posted on April 18, 2007 - Filed Under Other IT Stuff
A few months ago at DevWeek in London, several speakers introduced a platform called Windows Presentation Foundation/Everywhere. This is Microsoft’s browser plug-in technology, aimed firmed at Adobe Flash and now branded, ready for launch as Silverlight.
Silverlight is downloaded and installed into the browser, much like Flash was back in the day and it allows developers to delivery rich Windows like interfaces via a browser over the Web.
This product is partly political. The desktop is shrinking as more and more applications are delivered over the Web via a browser and Adobe Flash is the de facto product for rich user interfaces and multimedia Web sites. Microsoft recognise this and don’t want to give Adobe much of a head start. Silverlight has a presentation model called XAML which is similar to the Win
Silverlight fits nicely with the new Expression Studio, Microsoft’s answer to Adobe PhotoShop and Visual Studio, Microsoft’s integrated development environment for Microsoft .Net. Expression Studio is priced very keenly when compared to PhotoShop, but there doesn’t appear to be a Mac version and with so many designers preferring their Macs as a design tool it remains to be seen if Microsoft can wrestle these people over to the dark side.
Of the Silverlight examples I’ve seen they look very impressive, with plenty of rich content and interactivity. Microsoft are banking on people downloading the plug-in, just like they used to do with Flash and in time Silverlight will undoubtedly be included in IE at least.
For “official” examples, have a browse to: http://www.microsoft.com/silverlight/
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