Microsoft’s Silverlight “Cross-platform” – who are they kidding?


As part of our MSDN subscription, I am subscribed to MSDN Flashes.. newsletter blurbs about how Microsoft are doing great things.

Today’s story is about “Silverlight” – the sound of which has a textmate, expose, finderish ring to it to me.. but anyway.

At the Microsoft blurb, it seems Microsoft want to take on the role that currently Adobe’s Flash plays. Thankfully, Adobe recently released Flash player 9.0 for Linux.. which means it truly is cross-platform.

Here’s what Microsoft have to say about Silverlight

What is Silverlight?
Microsoft Silverlight is a cross-browser, cross-platform plug-in for delivering the next generation of media experiences and rich interactive applications (RIAs) for the Web.

Which platforms and browsers will Silverlight support?
Silverlight will support all major browsers on both Mac OS X and on Windows. Particular care is being taken to account for differences in platform and browser capabilities to ensure a consistent experience including experiences on FireFox, Safari, and Internet Explorer.

Well, they say a lot more than that but that’s all that matters. Cross-browser and Cross-platform but only works on Windows and Mac OS X?

I much prefer Python’s definition of Cross-platform.. a quick visit to the downloads section shows versions available for

Windows/DOS, Macintosh, Linux, AIX, AROS, AS/400, BeOS, OS/2, OS/390, PalmOS, Playstation and PSP, PSion, QNX, Series 60, Sparc Solaris, VxWorks, Windows CE or Pocket PC and Sharp Zaurus..

Comparing the two, I think Microsoft are being a bit liberal with the term Cross-Platform myself.

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Published by salubrium

I am a Systems Administrator based in Sydney, Australia with some hugely varied interests: Topics covered are Virtualization, Web Hosting, Remote Desktop, Security and Backups, PHP, Python, MVC Frameworks, SEO

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