Sunday, May 6, 2007

Microsoft Silverlight

Silverlight might be Microsoft’s long-term answer to web office competitors like Google*. It’s a cross-browser plug-in that allows developers to create .NET applications – e.g. C# or Python-based – with a bit of a focus on visuals (like Flash). While it’s completely proprietary, and the plug-in hasn’t any real user-base yet (meaning you need to push users through the installation process), this looks pretty cool, and Microsoft’s Silverlight site does an excellent job of explaining the technology through tutorial videos. I’m currently downloading the (mighty big) GUI IDE called MS Visual Studio “Orcas” (along with the design-oriented front-end called Expression Blend) to play around with this. Did any of you develop something with Silverlight already?

*Jeremy Zawodny says Microsoft “decided to change the game – or at least bet that the game is changing. When they deliver a browser-based version of Microsoft Office, you can bet your ass that it’ll be built to run in the .NET CLR that Silverlight offers. It’ll work in Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari, and maybe even Opera. On both Macs and Windows boxes.”

Microsoft Silverlight by Philipp Lenssen | Comments (25)

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