News - Microsoft Releases Silverlight 2

[HEXUS]

Second version of browser plugin for rich internet applications has new features and claims to be more open.

Read more.

[TheAnimus]

been playing with the beta quite a bit. Its really not right to compare it to flash, its not taking on flash.

Its more of the final nail in the coffin for java apps. Not only is .Net easyer to dev (many more langauges) a open standard from the start, have oh so many more features (transparent proxies, proper generics etc) then a framework with things like WPF which are actually able to leverage hardware acceleration, whilst been easier to develope.

Add in SilverLight 2.0, you can create incredibly rich content, that is deployed via the web model of Software as a Service.

This however is different from flash, which has at best a scripting langauge. If your going to draw a cartoon, you would be crazy to use silverlight, if you want to code an application, you'd be moronic to use flash.

[directhex]

minor note: whilst .net is an open standard, silverlight is not (yet?)

[baius]

I felt forced to DL it some time back (kept coming up on MS sites), but I still don't really know what it is. Said it was something to do with downloads. I use Firefox's (and associated "Download Manager") 99% of the time, so that's probably why I've not come across it yet.

[directhex]

I felt forced to DL it some time back (kept coming up on MS sites), but I still don't really know what it is. Said it was something to do with downloads. I use Firefox's (and associated "Download Manager") 99% of the time, so that's probably why I've not come across it yet.

it's a media plugin, like flash

sorta.

[baius]

it's a media plugin, like flash

sorta.

That "sorta" explains it. ;-)