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Microsoft Silverlight Supports Mac

MS is scared...of Google. They are trying desperately to regain their footing in a market that is changing to more open standards and OS independence.

Hell, all current mac hardware is essentially OS independent, and I bet in Leopard we see some fancy Bootcamp integration that make the lines between windoze and OSX even more blurred (in a good way)
 
MLB.tv

I sure hope that whatever happens with Silverlight and MLB.tv won't affect my ability to display streaming games on my TV. Right now, the WMP file launches externally in Quicktime, which I can easily display full screen on my TV. If it gets trapped in some weird Flash-like monster, I may lose control over how big the picture can be, or the controls, or it just plain might not work right. Basically, it works perfectly now, so there is nowhere for it to go but downhill, and I don't have a lot of faith in MS.
 
Analog Kid said:
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...
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Of course it is a trap. If Silverlight captures a very large part of the market, then MS will probably start treating non-Windows clients very poorly to enforce its Windows domination. However, if it becomes big enough to push Flash into improving, but never large enough to dominate the online video market, then I don't think they could afford to drop Mac or Linux support. That would be good for the consumer. However, it is risky...
 
Predictable

jholzner said:
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.
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This is perhaps a predictable response, but completely ignores what the technology is and why Microsoft is developing it. As an alternative to Flash, Microsoft must support all platforms and continue to do so or the technology will loose it's ability to compete. As long as Flash is cross platform compatible, Silverlight will be as well.

What would be more interesting is if Microsoft were to port .Net to Unix and allow developers to develop .Net applications on OS X and Linux. Obviously they have a vested interest in not doing this, so this story is really not all that interesting. But it does demonstrate how much a threat Adobe has become to them. I doubt Silverlight will really challange Flash; it will most likely find a niche market among .Net development shops that will find it easier capitalize on the knowlege pool with their existing developent teams. Why learn Flash and Action Script when they already know .Net?
 
Silverlight currently supports both Mac AND Linux - but I can't believe anyone would actually take Microsoft's word on it remaining cross-platform. It doesn't matter if it's based on an open standard - so is Active Directory, which is where Microsoft "embraced and extended" Kerberos.

Thing is, though, Flash video is no great shakes. It doesn't matter if Silverlight is inferior to Quicktime - Flash is their target.
 
RichP said:
Hell, all current mac hardware is essentially OS independent, and I bet in Leopard we see some fancy Bootcamp integration that make the lines between windoze and OSX even more blurred (in a good way)
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It's OS independent now. What do you think the real point of Vista is? I think the real point, given how much hardware manufacturers have had to alter their hardware to conform to Vista, is to make all hardware OS dependent.
 
... right, because what the world really needs right now is yet ANOTHER video format.

Edit: the above had been said, numerous times, already... so let me add another thought:

I think whatever the internet video standard becomes, DOES need improving. Look at the current quality of YouTube (Flash) videos... not exactly something you want to play on a HDTV with your AppleTV, which is where things are supposed to be moving.
 
fastred said:
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....
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I agree. MS needs everything to be THEIR standard.
 
Analog Kid said:
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.


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...
Click to expand...

Well to me this is good news. I mean if it were Apple that was releasing a flash rival we would all be really happy. But i mean come one, Microsoft sure do know how to do business and their software engineers aren't total amateurs:) .
And besides, the more competition the better right?Don't we all dream to stream videos instantly with hd quality? And one thing's for sure, such a dream will be achieved sooner rather than later with a bit of competition.
 
I will assume that Silverlight is to web video what Publisher is to desktop publishing apps, and on that assumption (which probably isn't far off) I'll steer clear of it as long as possible.

Generally speaking of course, MS apps are nightmares.
 
dornoforpyros said:
*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.
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You mean this?

princealfie said:
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/sil.../bb419317.aspx

This is the official link to start development in Macs for the Silverlight standard. It looks to be rather interesting.
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Interesting:
System Requirements
Macintosh Computer with Intel Processor
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Westside guy said:
Silverlight currently supports both Mac AND Linux - but I can't believe anyone would actually take Microsoft's word on it remaining cross-platform. It doesn't matter if it's based on an open standard - so is Active Directory, which is where Microsoft "embraced and extended" Kerberos.

Thing is, though, Flash video is no great shakes. It doesn't matter if Silverlight is inferior to Quicktime - Flash is their target.
Click to expand...

Silverlight does NOT support Linux!
 
qtip919 said:
luckily, things like DirectX have no direct end-user benefit ... riiiiiiggght...
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Except that the same things can be accomplished with cross-platform libraries.

More compatibility is always better. This is why Microsoft (whose OS business is finally slowing down) should start selling truly interoperable platforms instead of trying to create clones of stuff that already exists to make more money with their OS. Instead of trying to drive the business of something that has more competent competition than ever and can only go down in market share, move your business in the direction of platforms that don't care WHAT OS they live on top of?
 
No doubt it will be buggy and left to get out of date like the other Microsoft software.

If only another company would produce a decent fully functional spreadsheet, then I could be free of their products for good.
 
well, MS tasted success with windows 3.1/95/xp.

However vista is a bust.

They tried to compete in the mp3 market, but zune was a bust.

Wonder where they will try to find a new success.... hmmm, let's see now, it's a very interesting question... hmmm...

WAIT !!

salami !!

naaa, too ethnic, maybe media?
 
MLeepson said:
woopsgi1.png


In true MS fashion.

I'm never leaving my Flash, now.
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Did you try downloading it in a browser that is not Safari?
 
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