Microsoft PR sent out a link to this slick new Windows Home Server Demo this afternoon. Nothing really notable about it (although I do want one)…except the demo is in Flash.
Microsoft has been pushing their alternative framework to Flash called Silverlight since announcing it earlier this year, even going so far as to have a new search user interface created that shows off some of the Silverlight features. Did the memo never get to the Windows Home Server team? Eat your own dogfood, or else no one else will.
Of course, everyone has Flash on their computer, and few have Silverlight installed. So what does Microsoft want more – Silverlight installations or sales of Windows Home Servers? I guess the answer is – servers.
Neat observation. I see all your words were chosen carefully. I had a chuckle at Microsofts’ expense hehe
Hmm… I can’t say that the demo was all that bad. It kinda makes me want to have Windows Home Server. But only kinda.
Still not all that impressed, Microsoft.
yeah don’t know about Microsoft. If you have a technology ” silverlight” why use flash, am i not getting the point or is it MS
Oh Michael, that was such an insightful post, thank you for that… instead of writing on why they used FLASH, why not write about their great quarter, improved guidance and the fact that by the end of tomorrow it will be pushing a 5 year high?
Nobody has Silverlight installed. And nobody is going to take the time to install it. It’s not that difficult to understand.
I just think since both are relatively new to the marketplace, they probably didn’t figure either of them would lift the other much. I think it was probably a well thought out decision, I could see it either way but I don’t think it’s too major.
As someone who develops occasionally for internal Microsoft Campus exhibits, I would LOVE it if they started replacing all the Flash that’s already in place with Silverlight– ASAP. I could use the work, plus it’s super-fun working up there.
I think Microsoft is really on the ball here. How all their product tie into each other and work together. It’s really ashame that only 1% actually use the software and the hardware to its full potential.
I imagine they did this because no one would go out and get Silverlight to watch this kind of demo. They will, however, get it when they need it to do something better than Flash, like everything they’ve shown in the demos so far. Doing this demo in Silverlight would probably reach a much smaller audience, and likely generate few, if any, new Silverlight users.
Doing it in both may have been a good idea – with the Silverlight demo being more robust.
At least Apple tries to eat their own dog food, but Apple fanboys will install anything to view stuff you download from their site.
http://thwarted...stuck-in-web10/
I’d think that the story behind this is more like the creation of this ad was outsourced to a smaller agency who haven’t even heard of silverlight, and that it was project-managed by a microsoft marketing department who has no direct relationship with the silverlight dev team.
In other words, a non-story.
Microsoft ripped it off from HBOVOYEUR:
http://www.hbovoyeur.com/
It’s in Flash because Silverlight is buggy, not ready for prime time, and no one has it installed. Oh, it was a rhetorical question? Could you write some stories about Facebook please?
That’s a beautiful, simple, clean home in a nice location.
Why all the fuzz?
I think Microsoft want to sell the Home Server more than Silverlight.
They could have improved the idea of the home server. Currently its just not the thing that everybody will dream of owning.
yongfook hit the nail on the head. This had very little, if any at all, to do with the fact that no one had Silverlight installed on their computers. It has everything to do with the fact the no one outside of M$ develops in Silverlight. It will be interesting to see just how fast the dev community will adopt Silverlight. Part of me thinks that Microsoft’s acquisition of aQuantive was partly to get at the Razorfish devs and force them to use Silverlight.
I just watched the demo. Terrible would be too nice a description. It looks like they’re using Flash 7 video. The only thing that demo (if it can be called that) did is make me want to puke. Good luck selling anything with that.
#10 is spot on.
What I am waiting for is MSN videos. I use Messenger, or whatever they call it, and I see these little plugs for videos. And I hate that the link opens IE (even though Firefox is open) and then it takes me to an MSN video page where the videos are playing in Flash.
And I think… when they switch, I’ll look into it. http://video.msn.com And I think… if they want anyone to use Silverlight they have to use it. And I think people will download it if there is content they want to see. It’s no biggie to add a plug in.
Wait a sec. I don’t know anything about Windows Home Server, but the name implies something ridiculous. Might as well try selling boom boxes. In this day and age, why the hell do I need a server at my home configured to do all kinds of stuff. Why isn’t the server sitting in some place in the cloud, backed-up, and configurable via some great web-based UI’s (in browser or some other tv-compatible interface)?
I think we should give Microsoft a break here. A corporation isn’t a single entity controlled from on high, but is instead a whole bunch of workgroups, each trying to succeed. Microsoft in particular has been successful in cannibalizing itself, by developing parallel solutions within its own organization. A little anarchy can be a good thing.
I think Silverlight 1.0 makes perfect sense for businesses which already have a significant investment in Windows Media assets, servers, and workflows, and who wish to have a more modern, integrated enduser experience, while still retaining WMV control over reuse of their downloaded video assets. Sites like MLB.com are rational in using Silverlight for the paid-video segments of their website, particularly when many of their costs will be paid by Microsoft for doing so. It makes sense.
But Silverlight 1.0 doesn’t have an internal logic engine, however… it reaches out to the current hosting browser’s JavaScript engine for interactivity. This incurs significant development, testing and maintainence costs for content developers, as well as imposing compatibility and performance costs upon the viewing audience. These costs are probably even more significant than the runtime installation costs people discuss above. Something like this was probably the chokepoint for this particular project.
(Part of the confusion in this area is likely due to Microsoft promising, during the plugin’s introduction at their MIX event in Las Vegas March 200, delivery of a logic-capable browser plugin by December 2006. At the end of last year we actually saw a public release of the video-oriented, logic-less Silverlight 1.0 plugin, and a half-year later there was a preview of a parallel 1.1 line with logic, now estimated for 1.0 delivery sometime in mid-2008. These shifting announcements may be part of the reason people think the Microsoft Silverlight browser plugin might be able to do what the Adobe Flash Player 9 can do today. Mr. Reap, meet Mr. Sow.
The Windows Home Server folks want their hard work to be successful. They’ll do the calculations on total costs same as any other workgroup would. They do have an additional factor in the success of Microsoft’s other initiatives, but I don’t think we can fault them for estimating the total costs and benefits as they did.
jd/adobe
silverlight fails for a few reasons:
1) the plugin is installed via an exe not the usual browser way…
2) you get this on your work PCs “This installation is forbidden by system policy. Contact your system administrator for assistance”
considering how ghey IT admins are, it’s not worth the phone call
@ #12….big ups for the facebook request…
Well, Flash is more visible right now. And from a selling point of view, it’s just wise to go for it.
But Microsoft is already integrating Silverlight in some of their products like Tafiti and Popfly.
There is so such thing as bad publicity. Good for Microsoft!
No thank you, I would prefer to limit the number of devices MS software controls in my life, or else it will be one never ending life-long frustration, similar to that of waiting for Outlook to load, or IE 7 to open a page.
The reason for not using Silverlight, is that the targetgoup for this demo is clearly not not the the most tech-savvy, do not have the plug-in and would not be comfortable with installing it as they probably have never even heard about it before.
Well, Flash is more visible right now. And from a selling point of view, it’s just wise to go for it.
But Microsoft is already integrating Silverlight in some of their products like Tafiti and Popfly.
I posted that message awhile ago and it says that my comment is “awaiting moderation”. Lookie here:
http://img39.pi...edm_71eb1f3.jpg
Hmm…
Don’t you have kitchens in america these days? just a microwave in your office? And, quite frankly, where is the bathroom? A hole in the office chair? I would at least want to be able to flush my toilet from the comfort of my computer.
Of course SilverLight is missing!
Why Microsoft does”nt use SilverLight for own products?
Silverlight is too complex? Silverlight has less features that Flash Player 9?
I agree with John Dowdell point there.
I am unable to visualize a single person on this planet who deliberately would go for another microsoft lock-in.
I will only install silverlight if Steve Ballmer goes on tv like this:
“How much do you think this advanced operating environment is going for? Don’T ANSWER! ….”
Fake Steve, any words on that?
I would like to point out that hotmail ran Unix for about a year after MS purchased it. Back then their competing product offering was NT server 4..
The cool aid is for us, not them
Is it “But Why is it in Flash?” day, Even Erick posted an article with same words in Title!
Wow… sucks seeing TechCrunch devolve like this. Questions like these smack of fanboyism — come on Michael, you know how corporations work, and you know that marketing of this type is often out-sourced as well. Other posters explained this in more detail, though you should be embarrassed they had to. Aren’t you supposed to be a *leader* in web/tech insight (I believe I read that in the TechCrunch About – Bios)?
In fact, we should be applauding MS for using Flash because, if it shows anything, it shows that they’re being pragmatic: advertising has to have minimal to zero barrier of entry, and Silverlight obviously doesn’t have that at this point, whereas Flash does. One could argue that if they had used Silverlight they’d only be getting early-adopter / MS-fans to see the ad, which is exactly the crowd they don’t have to worry about / target with advertising like this.
Mike, you’re not dumb, so why the dumb question about what MS is doing here?
This is not the place for MS to take a stand on pushing Silverlight and you know it. In fact, if they did use SilverLight you would rightfully call it a dumb move.
To the jealous MS haters, MS does some things wrongs and some things right, like any company. But, they have made more of a contribution to advancing technology than any other company. Don’t worry, you can still make money without everything being open.
Tons of these “open source” companies, like sugar crm, are really not open and are just riding the wave. In actuality, the number of truly open source projects that are successful would number less than 20. Most just open up some APIs, preserve their core code, and call it open source to get the marketing benefits and to get free development resources.
In fact, it would be interesting for TC to do a post on how many truly “open source” projects have resulted in obtaining critical mass.
For the record: I do not work for MS, am not a partner of MS and frequently use non-MS technolgy. I also think MS does some pretty lame stuff, but let’s get some perspective here!
How do they get the attention of people like you, to get the word across, if they don’t use Flash
Yeah, another Mac fan boy shot at the MS bow, it get so fucking old, I want Home server myself, I could care less why Microsoft didn’t use it’s early Beta software for a non tech site, Silver light is too new to expect it every where.
To clarify, 37 is not the same Joe as 35.
Good publicity for Home Server and Silverlight, good job!
Enough with calling TechCrunch an MS-hater in this thread already. When the beta of Silverlight was first released, everyone was saying the exact opposite in the threads calling Arrington an MS fanboy because he was enthused about the technology. You’re bitching for the sake of bitching.
I don’t think TC folks are MS haters….generally….definately not with this post. I do think that many of the readers who take the time to post here are MS haters, most because they are jealous and think they would make more money if MS did not have so much control.
If control is the issue, everyone that cares about marketing expenditures beter start keeping a close eye on Google.
PopFly+Silverlight makes Flash Obsolete!
At the web 2.0 thingy we gave a preview of “Microsoft Online Composition Media Aggregation Layout Toolset”, at the time I wasn’t exactly 100% so I couldn’t remember the name, so I just told them it was named PopFly. I don’t know what made made say that name, but it has gone over well.
So, PopFly! PopFly! PopFly!
Adobe has been an annoyance to me for years, we have tried everything we could to dislodge them but they just keep cranking out good products. We even tried a few sabotage .dll’s, but they always figure it out in no time at all and issue a patch.
But I think we now have the right Combination, PopFly and Silverlight. Here’s my plan:
Those companies who will not adopt these technologies will be “downlisted” at MS.
IE8 will require it’s installation.
The booby-trap .dll’s will come out weekly.
Adobe will be marginalized!
It’s a beautiful day at Microsoft!
If Microsoft forces you to install Silverlight, you get OH NOES, EVIL MICROSOFT FORCING SOFTWARE ON US.
If Microsoft doesn’t force you to install Silverlight, you get OH NOES, SILVERLIGHT SUX0RS, M$ DOESN’T PRACTICE WHAT IT PREACHES.
> This is not the place for MS to take a stand on pushing Silverlight
> and you know it.
Didn’t you hear, Joe? It’s International Take a Cheap Shot Day.
lol. Thats kind of funny. I think Microsoft should have pushed the Silverlight connection for Home Server. Who is going to buy a Home Server with only a 56k connection? And if you have a broadband connection Silverlight downloads and installs nearly instantaneously.
It never ceases to amaze me how much Kool Aid MS can get people to drink
It never ceases to amaze me that people who bitch about MS and their products more frequently than not have little to no constructive and specific criticism that can stand up against fair analysis.
The reason is quite simple,
Microsoft signed a contract with an big US Marketing agency (Wunderman) to produce their marketing and communication Needs.
Those kind of agencies are very opportunist they don’t love technology they use it. Wunderman executive and account manage don’t even know what silverlight is…they just know flash. They have ONLY flash developers to provide webmarketing content to their clients even it’s Microsoft. they signed a marketing contract not a technology contract. Remember when you sell a dev platform you need peoples to for using it and Wunderman has no people right now we have to wait. Wunderman use freelances so we have to wait that flash dev will become Silverlight dev.
(sorry for my english)
Hi Michael,
Exactly the same point I figured when I saw some advertising of MS Unified Communications Platform: “Why Flash, when you guys have started to sell your Flash-like Technology?” It simply doesn’t make sense.
I really like the ‘dog food’ gag. I guess it tells it all.
Cheers.
“MICROSOFT has appointed Y&R Wunderman to its customer relationship and direct marketing business following a seven nation global pitch for the $US400m business”
more here http://www.band...7d/0c01e27d.asp
“It never ceases to amaze me that people who bitch about MS and their products more frequently than not have little to no constructive and specific criticism that can stand up against fair analysis.”
Good point. MS bugs, quirks, instability and vulnerabilities provides me an easy job with a nice income.
That’s because flash is the best