Microsoft Silverlight Supports Mac

[MacRumors]

A Channelweb article describes a new product from Microsoft called Silverlight which is a new web browser client for "advanced, browser-based video functionality."

Silverlight is said to be going head-to-head against Adobe's Flash, and is said to offer advanced functionality.

Netflix plans to adopt Silverlight as the foundation for its instant-viewing feature; a demo showed off high-quality streaming video overlaid with DVD-like menus and controls. A preview of forthcoming on-demand video functionality from MLB.com had attendees clamoring for the developing new features to hurry up and get finished.

As impressive as the demos were, the most remarkable aspect of the demo was Microsoft's commitment to make the platform "open" and "interoperable".

While Microsoft is famed for its halfhearted or nonexistant support for running its software on rival platforms, the company vows Silverlight will be different: Version one is slated to run natively in Safari and Firefox as well as Internet Explorer (both version 6 and 7), and Opera support is in the works.

The demo stage reportedly had a number of Macs with a large portion of the demo devoted to their usage. Unfortunately, authoring support is only available on the Windows platform.

A beta version is available now.

[stoid]

Originally Posted by Macrumors

The demo stage reportedly had a number of Macs with a large portion of the demo devoted to their usage. Unfortunately, authoring support is only available on the Windows platform.

And there's the kicker... I wonder what the chances are of there ever being a compareable Mac authoring package.

Looks like Microsoft is trying to muscle it's way into the creative market by once again leveraging it's OS market share.

[Roads0]

Hopefully this will translate into Macs being able to use Netflix's Watch Now feature.

[jholzner]

Originally Posted by stoid

And there's the kicker... I wonder what the chances are of there ever being a compareable Mac authoring package.

Looks like Microsoft is trying to muscle it's way into the creative market by once again leveraging it's OS market share.


edit: First post worth reading

The real question is...how long until they abandon the Mac client like with WMP. My vote is for Adobe and their Flash player. They have no OS agenda like MS.

[fastred]

This needs to be killed early....

Its just another MS attempt to kill off rival standards - be it Flash, GoogleVideo, YouTube, Quicktime etc etc.

Avoid like the plague, or we will all suffer later....

[x86isslow]

Originally Posted by Roads0

Hopefully this will translate into Macs being able to use Netflix's Watch Now feature.

I was seriously about to buy Parallels just for the Netflix thing. If this really happens, I won't ever need Windows.

[combatcolin]

I think i'll stick to Flash.

Microsoft have enough products in m home, don't need any more.

[Max Payne]

I hope Microsoft lose lots of money in this.

[longofest]

Originally Posted by fastred

This needs to be killed early....

Its just another MS attempt to kill off rival standards - be it Flash, GoogleVideo, YouTube, Quicktime etc etc.

Avoid like the plague, or we will all suffer later....

Flash doesn't really have any real competition out there, so I wouldn't go on such an extreme and call for an immediate boycott. In the end, SOME competition is most often good for the consumer as it drives companies to make their products better.

[davidjearly]

Isn't this screenshot from the demo video rather like the iPhone....

http://www.microsoft.com/silverlight/

David

[plinden]

There are a lot of websites delivering WMV content out there that don't work at all on Macs - like the Netflix player (due to use of ActiveX for player control). Anything that works cross platform, no matter who produces it, is welcome to me.

I put the wpf/e beta (aka silverlight) on my Mac several weeks ago, and it works just as well as in Windows. The team has promised Linux support later.

As for the development tools - you don't need MS's tools. Silverlight is based on XAML and javascript so you can use any text editor to create content, albeit with a lot of trouble. If this takes off, there will be third party OSS projects to create such tools.

By the way, Flash isn't a "standard", any more than Windows is (i.e. it's a de facto standard). It's proprietary. You have to pay Adobe for the Flash development tools.

[adrianm]

and where's the rumour part?

[MLeepson]

In true MS fashion.

I'm never leaving my Flash, now.

[donlphi]

Originally Posted by fastred

This needs to be killed early....

Its just another MS attempt to kill off rival standards - be it Flash, GoogleVideo, YouTube, Quicktime etc etc.

Avoid like the plague, or we will all suffer later....

I find it hard to believe that people are really looking for new standards. The only nice thing would be that MAYBE adobe will lower it's prices.

I really don't want to download yet ANOTHER player for my browser.

Rather than see APPLE create their own platform for web animation, they should create a program similar to iWEB or add to iWEB allowing people to use templates to create advanced FLASH files without needing to know how to edit the script.

Drag and Drop, but still supporting FLASH and it's "mission"

I know these programs already exist, but they aren't that well known. There is room for growth in that market and room for the "APPLE TOUCH".

[KingofAwesome]

Originally Posted by plinden

There are a lot of websites delivering WMV content out there that don't work at all on Macs - like the Netflix player (due to use of ActiveX for player control). Anything that works cross platform, no matter who produces it, is welcome to me.

I put the wpf/e beta (aka silverlight) on my Mac several weeks ago, and it works just as well as in Windows. The team has promised Linux support later.

As for the development tools - you don't need MS's tools. Silverlight is based on XAML and javascript so you can use any text editor to create content, albeit with a lot of trouble. If this takes off, there will be third party OSS projects to create such tools.

By the way, Flash isn't a "standard", any more than Windows is (i.e. it's a de facto standard). It's proprietary. You have to pay Adobe for the Flash development tools.

I haven't had any trouble in recent memory viewing WMV files on my mac, do you have Flip4Mac?

[applekid]

Great. More web standards.

I will applaud Microsoft on keeping it open interoperable though.

[marco114]

I just watched in their showcase the Die Hard trailer and then on Apple's site. Apple's quicktime video is SOOOO MUCH cleaner.

Microsoft's version:
http://www.silverlight.net/fox/

http://www.apple.com/trailers/fox/li.../t1_large.html

Sorry M$, you need to do better.



For fair comparison, even the "Medium" quality quicktime is better/crisper

[BRLawyer]

No thanks, MS won't have my bacon. I will never download a MS software that phones home...period.

[plinden]

Originally Posted by KingofAwesome

I haven't had any trouble in recent memory viewing WMV files on my mac, do you have Flip4Mac?

It's not the content, it's what these websites use to deliver the content - take a look at Netflix's "Watch Now" or AT&T's Broadband TV. An ordinary WMV will display fine with Flip4Mac, but if the player is controlled via ActiveX, there's no way you are going to be able view anything without IE on Windows.

[KingofAwesome]

Well, so far I've got a bad impression of it. In the download instructions, step two is to leave that page for another page and press the download button. Why are you making users browse away from the instructions so soon, Microsoft?

The big show-stopper for me came after running the installation package. There's no option to just install for this user, and since this is a work computer I don't have admin rights. Why can't I install it just under my own account?

[dornoforpyros]

*Yawn*

Whatever happened to the photoshop "rival" M$ released a year or two ago?

All I really remember of it was M$ released a beta and the design community had a good chuckle and got back to work.

[The General]

It seems to work okay ... but what is the benefit of this over flash?

Flash supports all three operating systems and works okay.

This supports two operating system and works okay.

I don't get it?

[KingofAwesome]

Originally Posted by plinden

It's not the content, it's what these websites use to deliver the content - take a look at Netflix's "Watch Now" or AT&T's Broadband TV. An ordinary WMV will display fine with Flip4Mac, but if the player is controlled via ActiveX, there's no way you are going to be able view anything without IE on Windows.

Ok, that's different. I thought you were saying you couldn't view any video that used the WMV codec.

I haven't been able to use ActiveX sites in quite some time anyway because for the last few years I used PC's, I was running Firefox and Mozilla. Hey, if they don't want my web traffic, I can click on the ads on other websites instead.

[Peace]

Originally Posted by The General

It seems to work okay ... but what is the benefit of this over flash?

Flash supports all three operating systems and works okay.

This supports two operating system and works okay.

I don't get it?

It's just Microsoft muscling it's way into yet another try at controlling the intertubes.

[Analog Kid]

Ah yes, the ol' "We're really going to play nice this time" ploy... This is just going to go the way of all their other cross platform initiatives: WMP, IE, Windows NT, VPC, MAPI, PlaysForSure... I'm sure ya'll can add to that list.

Originally Posted by longofest

Flash doesn't really have any real competition out there, so I wouldn't go on such an extreme and call for an immediate boycott. In the end, SOME competition is most often good for the consumer as it drives companies to make their products better.

I agree, but this isn't competition-- this is a trap. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me a few dozen times and I start to notice the pattern...