Yesterday, Microsoft released Silverlight 5, available on IE, Chrome, Firefox, and Safari on both Mac and PC. The update adds hardware decoding for H.264 media, some new programming features for developers, and other performance improvements. Silverlight 5 may also be the end of the line for Silverlight. Windows 8 will support Silverlight 5 in full desktop mode, but the Metro-style browser will not and neither does Windows Phone.
More to the point, while Microsoft plans on supporting Silverlight 5 for ten years (which in itself may be a sign that it won't have a followup), the company is clearly more interested in directing developers to other frameworks for development, including Metro apps for Windows 8 and HTML5/Javascript frameworks that are compatible with IE10. It could be that, like Adobe before it, Microsoft has recognized that the era of the web browser plugin is behind us. Silverlight has other applications, but we'd be surprised to see Microsoft make big Silverlight push again.
There are 37 Comments. Add yours.
yay, XNA is gone too, cleaning out the rubbish
Posted on Dec 10, 2011 | 9:29 AM EST reply Recommend (1) Flag actions
Though there are quite a number of martyrs; I deem this a much better trait than to stick forever with one’s own mistake, like Apple does with Objective-C.
Posted on Dec 10, 2011 | 9:49 AM EST reply Recommend (6) Flag actions
Objective-C as a mistake? Not an objective comment there I see…
(See what I did there?)
Posted on Dec 10, 2011 | 10:24 AM EST reply Recommend (4) Flag actions
Objective-C was a mistake in the sense that it never became mainstream. True, GCC offers Objective-C compatibility, and there are handful of other compilers too for other platforms than Mac: however, it’s been used only for Mac/iOS apps and not anywhere else: I hold that, for a language to be deemed successful, it has to be used by at least one more party other than it’s creator.
Also, I didn’t find it a particularly welcome language to learn, unlike C#, even when you’re thorough in both C and C++.
And yeah, the comment might not be Objective, but Sharp, it indeed is. ;-)
Posted on Dec 10, 2011 | 10:45 AM EST reply Recommend (7) Flag actions
a valid argument based on erroneous assumptions and personal bias. there seems to be plenty of people who don’t mind using objective-C. like C++, it’s a superset of C, so all of the powerful things you can do with C, you can do with objective-C, though that makes it potentially complex like C. unlike C++, it is dynamically typed, which can be an advantage depending on one’s preference.
Posted on Dec 10, 2011 | 11:49 AM EST reply Recommend (3) Flag actions
I’m ready to take back my arguments and apologize if you could point out at least one mainstream application on a platform other than Mac OSX or iOS written in Objective C.
Posted on Dec 11, 2011 | 12:35 AM EST reply Recommend (2) Flag actions
Boom goes the dynamite.
Posted on Dec 11, 2011 | 4:46 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Doom and Quake.
Posted on Dec 12, 2011 | 7:53 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
I now see where you came from, but I disagree with your premise… OS X and iOS are widespread enough platforms. It’s pretty narrow minded to call a platform a mistake just because “only its creator” uses it when that creator has 500 million+ devices in use out there right now… Maybe more.
Posted on Dec 12, 2011 | 5:14 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
That was precisely my point – with a platform as strong as that, it’s not right for Apple to stick to Objective-C so that if developers needed to develop for any of their product at all, they needed to learn a new language.
Posted on Dec 16, 2011 | 3:20 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Why would XNA be going? That powers Windows Phone and XBLI games.
Posted on Dec 10, 2011 | 10:51 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
talking about PC, as was the article, it’s not supported anymore in W8, unless there was a recent change I’m not aware of
Posted on Dec 10, 2011 | 11:09 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
XNA is supported exactly the same in Windows 8 as it is in Windows 7 (just the same as basically everything else is).
It’s simply that you can’t just XNA yet to create “Immersive” / WinRT applications. XNA applications can still be run in the desktop environment.
Posted on Dec 10, 2011 | 12:23 PM EST reply Recommend (1) Flag actions
Silverlight =/= XNA. XNA’s here to stay.
Posted on Dec 10, 2011 | 10:52 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
http://n4g.com/news/859222/speaking-code-microsoft-ditches-xna-in-windows-8-sort-of/com
Posted on Dec 10, 2011 | 11:07 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Andre Russell thinks otherwise
Posted on Dec 10, 2011 | 11:22 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
http://www.ska-studios.com/2011/09/16/good-morning-gato-76-crouching-neko-hidden-gato/
Posted on Dec 11, 2011 | 9:15 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Funny you call rubbish what was quite possibly one of the single most important contributions to the success of the XBOX platform in the past 10 years. Ever hear of Call of Duty XBOX edition? The most successful video game title ever?
Posted on Dec 10, 2011 | 12:27 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Call of Duty is not made, nor has ever been made, with XNA.
Posted on Dec 10, 2011 | 5:50 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Meh…. when do I ever use silverlight.
Posted on Dec 10, 2011 | 9:32 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Have you ever watched Netflix on a computer?
Posted on Dec 10, 2011 | 9:52 AM EST reply Recommend (18) Flag actions
There’s a high chance that you have without realizing it.
Posted on Dec 10, 2011 | 11:45 AM EST via mobile reply Recommend Flag actions
Silverlight powers a lot of the streaming video services on the web today including the Olympics, Netflix and so on. It’s often hidden in the background, but Silverlight Smooth Streaming is superior to any other video streaming technology today.
Posted on Dec 11, 2011 | 11:55 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Microsoft has a long history of throwing in the towel on it’s own technologies and pushing flavor-of-the-month development kits. About the time that developers get fully invested in their proprietary HTML 5 tools (Metro apps are built with HTML but they aren’t cross platform) they’ll declare HTML/Javascript dead and announce the next big thing. So glad I took a pass on learning Silverlight.
Posted on Dec 10, 2011 | 9:35 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Remember, Silverlight cannot be deemed completely dead yet, neither can XNA – the Windows Phone development revolves around these two platforms, one of the reasons for the 10-year support promise.
As with the HTML5/Javascript trend – you may be right in fact; given Javascript is not a particularly well-crafted language to begin with (which is why Google recently delivered it’s own alternative called ‘Grid’); it might more likely than not be replaced by something else in the future – this is not just about Microsoft. However, for at least a decade to come HTML5 will stay – given all the major pushers have realized the power of the platform as a unifying force; it’s unlikely that anyone will want to stray away and risk themselves landing out of the game.
Posted on Dec 10, 2011 | 9:46 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Do you mean Google Dart?
Posted on Dec 10, 2011 | 11:34 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Yes, I meant the Dart, sorry for the typo. :)
Posted on Dec 11, 2011 | 12:36 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Metro apps can also be built using what is essentially Silverlight (Silverlight’s XAML model, C#, and a few new Windows 8 API’s).
It’s you loss for not learning SIlverlight / WPF, they’re incredibly powerful for creating rich, hardware accelerated UI’s. If you were smart, you could have used that to your advantage and blown people away with something awesome.
Posted on Dec 10, 2011 | 12:25 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
I don’t think Javascript is going away anytime soon. No one in the industry trusts MS because of what they have done and no one trusts Google because they want to become the next MS.
Interesting article about this: http://www.hackerspews.com/?a
Posted on Dec 10, 2011 | 10:03 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
As long as the Zune software does not change appearance, I don’t mind.
Posted on Dec 10, 2011 | 10:12 AM EST reply Recommend (1) Flag actions
Eh, the Zune software isn’t built on Silverlight (or WPF), it was built on it’s own UI framework.
Posted on Dec 10, 2011 | 12:25 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Silverlight as a web plugin will die. Silverlight as an out of browser tool will probably stay as it has been rummored to be used in a form or other on the next Xbox.
Posted on Dec 10, 2011 | 10:58 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
considering that Windows 8 Metro Apps use WinRT, which is a very similar to Silverlight, its not going anywhere. However, just like Flash, the browser plugin will end.
Posted on Dec 10, 2011 | 11:24 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
So since support is being pulled it would be nice of Microsoft to STOP FKING USING SILVERLIGHT ON THEIR TECHNICAL WEBSITES!!
Posted on Dec 10, 2011 | 2:06 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
uh…. they’re pulling their support for this version of Silverlight in 2021. That’s a ridiculously long time in the technology world…
Posted on Dec 10, 2011 | 2:27 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
They actually just made SkyDrive html5 I guess the change will come albeit slowly
Posted on Dec 10, 2011 | 3:48 PM EST via mobile reply Recommend Flag actions
I agree; Apple should also stop forcing Quictime down our throats when visiting the trailers site or their homepage..
Posted on Dec 10, 2011 | 4:21 PM EST reply Recommend (3) Flag actions
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