Microsoft’s competitor to Adobe Flash, Silverlight, has officially rolled out the new version, Silverlight 3, today. Silverlight is a cross-browser, cross-platform, and cross-device plug-in for delivering media experiences and interactive applications for the Web. The first version was launched in 2007 and the second version was launched in September of 2008. In April, Microsoft reported 300 million downloads of Silverlight between September 2007 and April 2009, with an estimated 300,000 developers and engineers working off the Silverlight platform.
SIiverlight 3 launched a day earlier today on Microsoft’s servers, surprising the blogosphere. The new version has improved streaming capabilities, called Smooth Streaming. Here’s what Microsoft said about the new streaming function:
If the Internet bandwidth and video rendering capability on your playback device are sufficiently high, you’ll experience high-definition video playback of the sample content. You will also be able to simulate end user experiences under varying conditions by simulating drops and recoveries in bandwidth. If your actual bandwidth is below 3 Mbps, or your playback device is video-challenged, then you will experience the adaptive nature of Smooth Streaming without needing to simulate a bandwidth cap.
Microsoft is also extending Silverlight’s technologies beyond the browser by allowing developers to design and create apps that can run on the desktop. Microsoft will be announcing further details about Silverlight at its official launch of Silverlight 3 and Expression Studio 3 tomorrow morning. We’ll have all the details. And Microsoft will also be demoing some of the real-time capabilities of Silverlight 3 at TechCrunch’s Real-Time Stream CrunchUp tomorrow.
Great, another update…
i know, right? patch fatigue…
Silverlight will soon become a threat to Flash. You better protect your Flash Source Codes. http://bit.ly/10MBYj
Good God, you’re right! Silverlight is going to plagiarize my Flash source code! Thankfully you spammed in time, or I never would have wasted my hard-earned money on your garbage product!
Oh c’mon, quit your whining “st”. Nobody wants to hear that.
Leaving beta is “just another update”? Please… Some of you MS-haters need to get off it.
The media streaming after the update was amazingly smooth.
The install link wasn’t working on the Silverlight page and after 3 attempts. This install is still a major hurdle for wide-scale penetration.
this line was funny: “Don’t Worry! We won’t install a bunch of additional stuff on your computer or try to sign you up for unwanted email.”
I wonder if this has something to do with Office 10 Online – perhaps Silverlight will power it in some capacity.
Slick.
I think you might be right about Office 10 Online, Michael. Although I’m a Flex dev, I think the more competition from MS the better.
Yes that is correct. If you have silverlight installed Office Online (Web Access Companions) will use that to reproduce a very high fidelity document in the browser. Even if there is no silverlight installed we will still render a high fidelity document (way better than what Google Docs can do) but silverlight will make the documents pop
.
However to clarify I belive we use Silverlight 2.0.
sliverlight is lame …. adobe air , adobe flash , adobe flex that´s the real deal !
Great work, Silverlight is HUGE
Silverlight could take over Flash over time. http://bit.ly/10MBYj
It’s not as cross-platform as flash, though. Do they plan to release a linux version?
Perhaps they will launch office for silverlight on monday?
So many questions, so few answers…
Plus i don’t know if it’s intentional, but it crashed on my chrome browser
http://www.mono...t.com/Moonlight
“Moonlight is an open source implementation of Silverlight (http://silverlight.net), primarily for Linux and other Unix/X11 based operating systems. In September of 2007, Microsoft and Novell announced a technical collaboration that includes access to Microsoft’s test suites for Silverlight and the distribution of a Media Pack for Linux users that will contain licensed media codecs for video and audio.”
there is a port of Silverlight by the Mono team over at Novell called Moonlight.
and SL is working just fine in Chrome for me. I get some sites that warn me it’s not a supported browser but content renders just fine (I did restart the browser after the install – YMMV)
The problem with Moonlight, the Silverlight port to Linux is that they are dragging far behind. The Moonlight version of Silverlight 1.0 only came out early this year. Meanwhile the port of Silverlight 2.0 is still in alpha, so I imagine it will be quite some time before a version for Sivlerlight 3.0 is ready.
The delta between 1.0 and 2.0 was very large, this explains the delay.
The delta between 2.0 and 3.0 is a lot more manageable.
Additionally Moonlight’s 2.0 alpha includes already 3.0 features.
Nice sourcing there TechCrunch. NOT.
This is great news. I watched most of the Olympics last year online. It was being streamed via Silverlight and was pretty good. Glad to hear it’s going to get even better.
If it wag Google, silverlight would be open sourced, multi-platform, free to anyone to integrate or develop tools around, and a web standards proposition. MS still trying the old tricks to lure users and developers to proprietary tools. I am not using this.
All true, but sadly, end users don’t care about this. They’ll happily jump into the trap and then we’ll have craptastic proprietary standards with no progress just like in the 90s.
Look at Bing. The arrow on the bottom right to change pictures REQUIRES silverlight. In other words: goodbye mobile devices! There’s no technical reason for this, it’s just MS pushing it’s agenda. Has google ever required a plugin on the google.com? I don’t think so!
I understand the need for devs to be able to create rich content, but just like you said, it needs to be FREE and OPEN or it’s just another trap in the end.
I wonder why nobody makes a fuss that Silverlight isn’t on IPhone. Ohh right, it doesn’t matter.
Who gives a damn about Silverlight? It’s crap that no one uses.
HTML5 will kill this crap.
HTML5 is being challenged, especially on the video front, by battling standards. A recent Ars Technica article describes the issue being faced by the HTML5 working group. Take a peek. No easy, quick answers: http://arstechn...odec-debate.ars
Because of this, both Flash and Silverlight have lots of life left in them. In terms of Flash, it’s also supported by a massive developer and designer community.
Things don’t change that quickly. Both Flash and Silverlight will be here for a long, long time.
Netflix uses Silverlight. The Olympics use Silverlight. Hulu is rumored to be experimenting with Silverlight to cut down on bandwidth. NBC and Fox use Silverlight.
NBC uses Flash. They stopped using Silverlight after the Olympics (probably because Microsoft stopped paying them to use it).
Fox.com prompts me to install the Move player–not Silverlight.
Too bad HTML 5 is not expected to have widespread adoption until 2012 or so! In the meantime, Flash and Silverlight are here now!
Didn’t Move Networks do this like 3 years ago? And didn’t MSFT invest in them??
Good to see. Silverlight is much better than Flash/Flex for developers. HTML5 may be a problem for them though.
we just started using it last week – we likey so far
so far silverlight seems to be good….but the truth will tell once it releases. In my honest opinion, silverlight 2 was about the same as the first silverlight.
I’ll be damned to use anything from MS if I don’t badly have to. We are just about to get rid of one of their monopolies (Internet Explorer). I’m not stupid enough to blindly run into the next.
Flash sucks but I rather use that then Silverlight.
so you rather use something that sucks than something that works beautifully? I think a lot of people really need to rethink their MSFT hate.
How many times does MS need to prove they can’t be trusted until you realize you’re on the wrong side of the argument?
The technical merit alone doesn’t justify giving them more power that they’ll use to stomp out competition in other markets. That is what they do, every single time. I don’t know about you, but I prefer competition in my markets.
If you prefer competition in your markets, you do realize that Silverlight is bringing competition to Flash, don’t you?
Okay fanboi!
“Flash sucks” since when? Flash and Adobe Air beat all other RIA platforms last time I checked.
You probably don’t even realize all of the sites you visit or apps you use that under the covers use Flash… um it’s everywhere.
LOL at least one thing is true. Apple is consistent… consistent with charging outrageous prices for hardware that really isn’t that unique anymore.
Sorry I pay for value not brand.
You’re right, $450 for Vista super ultra special golden edition is true value.
Value is not all it’s cracked up to be. Often times, user experience and delight tops value. Sure, McDonalds can feed me all the same for MUCH LESS, but I’d rather have a fresh well-prepared meal at home or at a proper restaurant.
Well then do a comparison. Everyone complains about Vista.
Really? Why? have you actually used it? I use it every day… and I don’t have issues and I don’t have problems.
It’s just a way of thinking and people are set in it.
Somehow I should feel good for paying 1000’s of dollars for a computer that gives me much less than what I can get out of a PC.
It’s like going to Starbucks and paying $5+ for a large frap. Screw that, I can go to McDonalds, as you say, and get a frap for cheaper, that’s better.
Why do you think Starbucks are closing down? Because McDonalds beat them at their own game.
It’s only a matter of time for the “User Experience” to catch up to Apple, and then what will they be left with? Expensive computers/laptops that no one will be willing to buy.
It’s all about price to me… and honestly Apple doesn’t get my money for just being a brand.
Same with Alienware. It’s just a brand that you are paying for, nothing more nothing less.
That’s pretty much the Microsoft way – deploy the release-vesion runtime at the front-page, but leave beta tools and beta SDK (so ehr… what’s the point of the newer runtime, if you can’t build apps with suitable SDK?)
the sdk is out
Yep, it’s out, but links at the Developers’ page pointed to SDK 2 (not even 3 Beta). I had to dig into community forum to locate the valid links, so, apparently I wasn’t the only one to be misled by Microsoft on this
Oh! Visifire Silverlight Charts already support SL3. http://www.visi...-silverlight-3/
Whoevever designed the microsoft.com/silverlight site should be shot! Took me forever to find the bloody download link! (Same problem with the regular silverlight.net website)
This is obviously being released early to prep for the release of the 1080p video streaming coming to the xbox. They did say that the stream would start low quality and build up quality as it buffers, which is EXACTLY what this is going!! Looks quite well if you ask me.