Today at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), Microsoft formerly annonced its latest technologies for developing rich browser-based experiences, which it calls Silverlight---previously known as WPF/e (Windows Presentation Foundation Everywhere).
Tim Sneath of Microsoft has more on the details about what Silverlight is. Microsoft has a
First, about the name change, does this fortell that WPF/e's heftier cousin WPF will soon be given a name change too? Maybe "Silver"? Heh. A more likely outcome that this points out is that we have two technologies that are diverging. I hope not though. On the programming side we're still talking about some runtime and a programming model that supports XAML. Same goes for the original Windows Presenation Foundation. Call me silly, but I'd like to see consistent naming across these technologies. No biggy, though. I can get used to any name. Others see the name as being quite positive.
Anyway, today's announcement doesn't really add that much to what was already known about WPF/e, eh, Siilverlight. For instance, Silverlight will run in IE and Firefox on Windows and Firefox and Safari on the Mac. Also, a CTP is available for download and experimentation.
However, Microsoft promises further details on Silverlight at Mix07. In particular, Tim Sneath says there will be a "big surprise" at Mix. I hope it includes additional OS and/or device support. Supporting Windows and the Mac is good, but it's not exactly the definition of ubiquity. What are you going to say to kids running the OLPC computers? Use Flash?
One thing is for sure, video playback via Flash has caught on big--particularly because it provided a way for video to "just work" in browsers, something that was a pain early on. Silverlight is one step on the path to providing a Microsoft alternative. We'll have to see how it works out.


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