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What Problem is Silverlight Trying to Solve?

Posted At : May 27, 2008 8:52 PM | Posted By : Stefan Richter | Related Categories: Off topic

Usually solutions are there to solve problems, yet I am having a hard time figuring out which problem Silverlight is trying to solve. My view point on Silverlight is that of an end user since I have not yet developed any Silverlight content. This is not down to a lack of interest either, after all it is a much hyped technology, but due to a lack of development tools on my chosen operating system, OSX.

As an end user I have yet to see anything that offers any benefit to me. Quite the opposite actually. When I recently asked about Silverlight demos on the streamingmedia list was pointed to Silverlight.net by a Microsoft employee. I walked away asking myself if this was the cutting edge of Silverlight deployments - surely not, since my experience was along the lines of
- Clicked on showcase
- Received error mesage:
"Silverlight error message, ErrorCode: 3002
ErrorType: ImageError
Messsage: AG_E_NOT_FOUND

- Clicked OK, same message
- Clicked OK, same message
- Clicked OK, same message... and I was out of there.

Today I browsed around itv.com and came across their TV catchup service (UK viewing only I believe). It looked remarkably like Flash, and admittedly I got a bit excited. Since ITV is one of my clients I know that they have a very open mind when it comes to technology, and are happy to use a mix of whatever does the job including Flash, Windows Media as well as Silverlight. Good thinking. Except this time it seems, since the 'Flash' player didn't do anything. I clicked play but it just went black. I tried a different video and again, nothing. Right click.. brings up Silverlight preferences.

That explains it then. I am kidding - I'm not blaming Silverlight for what may simply be a file access problem. But why Silverlight? Is it all down to being forced by Legal to use DRMed content? What else could be the reason? The user certainly does not benefit from this, or am I missing something?

Someone tell me, what itch is Silverlight trying to scratch? Surely even the best developer workflow in the world (at least so I've heard) cannot make up for a broken user experience. I'm holding my breath for the Olympics coverage.

PS: I was given a behind the scenes look at the live streaming at ITV recently. Expect some coverage on that in the next few weeks.

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The "problem" is clearly that Flex is rapidly becoming the standard technology for RIAs, and Microsoft wants a piece of that

:)

# Posted By Tony Fendall | 5/27/08 10:21 PM

Exactly what Tony said. I recently attended a free Microsoft conference for the launch of Visual Studio 2008. In just about every session Microsoft made some mention of Silverlight and showed a few demos. Not a single demo showed anything we haven't been doing in Flex for years, yet all around me I could hear .NET developers ooh'ing and aah'ing. As a web and Flex/AIR developer, it really amazed me just how unaware Microsoft developers are of other fantastic technologies all around them. Even Visual Studio, as nice as it is, is just now introducing features Dreamweaver has had since at least MX (such as split-view editing), but the .NET crowd cheered and acted like it was revolutionary. Microsoft has the potentially huge advantage in all those .NET zombies, er, I mean developers -- don't underestimate it.

# Posted By Kevin Ford | 5/27/08 10:37 PM

Agreed, silverlight might not solve a problem when your starting a project from scratch..

I think the value for silverlight is for the tons of existing .NET and WPF infrastructures that are out there. The integration is really smooth..

But yea a flash vs. silverlight comparison is useless, even microsoft uses flash for some of their demo's and animations on their site instead of silverlight.

# Posted By Evert | 5/28/08 12:14 AM

At the end of the day, Silverlight is all about the developer and not the end-user. I work in a Microsoft shop doing UI design (Fireworks and Flash). I've heard from our developers before that if you could develop for Flash in visual studio and using C#, they'd do it in a heartbeat.
Silverlight allows them to use all their existing knowledge, code base, and familiar tools to build their web-based apps. Its safe for them, and safe for management when they decide to support another Microsoft technology versus some "third party".

# Posted By John | 5/28/08 1:13 AM

I would have to agree with Johns comments, it is the developer base they are aiming for.

I don't think it solves any issues, but given that at the Remix 08 in Australia MS gave away at least 1000 copies or the Expression suite as well they are building the developer base.

# Posted By Wolf | 5/28/08 2:26 AM

@Evert: There is internal MS directive to replace all flash contents with silverlight but that just can't happen in short time.

# Posted By r | 5/28/08 2:39 AM

Silverlight need more and more time to build itself such a technology that can confront Flash. So I think, right now it's not good to compare Silverlight with Flash. May be in near future, but who knows? Flash and Flex is breaking limits and becoming a way too advance.

# Posted By Sunil Gupta | 5/28/08 2:49 AM

I've only dabbled in Flex and MXML but the experience was very similar to using Visual Studio. Code hints and other nice features.

Clearly the solution is for Microsoft to back off Yahoo and aquire Adobe... ;-)

# Posted By Joe Hakooz | 5/28/08 5:41 AM

Hi Stefan,
Well, for one - streaming video on a Mac now finally works on the Norwegian national television site: http://www1.nrk.no/nett-tv/I have to set Silverlight as my preference every time I visit the site (cookie not working?), but the streaming itself works much better than it did with QuickTime and the Flip4Mac plugin. I think this is at least one of the problems they've been trying to solve.

It will be a bumpy road tough. I doubt that Silverlight "just works" as Flash video does since I've seen several failed implementations of such a simple thing as a video player...

J

# Posted By Jensa | 5/28/08 9:48 AM

This is pretty much how I feel about Flex and AIR. Can't see any use for them. Emperors new clothes is one way of describing it, and I can't think of a single Flash developer who's taken any interest in them. Sure, I READ a lot about them, but in real-life I see nothing. It's just another way for Adobe to flog us more of their crap for extortionate prices, which is what you're essentially trying to poke fun at Microsoft for.

# Posted By Dave | 6/9/08 2:23 PM

you should try browsing the internet every once in a while Dave.
If what you say was true then the case for Silverlight would be even harder to make.

PS: Flex is free.

# Posted By Stefan Richter | 6/9/08 2:48 PM

Well Stefan, Silverlight is also free. And?

# Posted By radekg | 6/9/08 2:50 PM

No and. Some anonymous poster called called Dave made a point about extortionate prices on Adobe's part and I therefore pointed out that Flex was free. I didn't make a judgment about Silverlight's pricing.

# Posted By Stefan Richter | 6/9/08 3:00 PM

Then look at other Adobe software you will need to finish your app and you'll discover Flex is not so free. Specially when you decide to go with ColdFusion flagship.

# Posted By radekg | 6/9/08 3:07 PM

radekg, I build applications on top off Adobe products for a living. Price is secondary, it's return on investment that matters.
I use a variety of application servers, some of which are free (PHP, Ruby...), and some of which are not (Coldfusion, ASP...). Often we also require an OS license for Windows which is not cheap. But it doesn't matter, sometimes Windows is more cost effective than Linux due to the project requirements and skills at hand.
Judging by your blog I would have thought you knew this though.

I don't claim that the Flash Platform is a one size fits all solution. But I do have a hard time understanding what Silverlight offers the end user that Flash and Flex do not.

# Posted By Stefan Richter | 6/9/08 3:14 PM

radekg, you'll get a long way with a standard LAMP-setup, the free Flex SDK and the C# based FlashDevelop IDE. No need to buy Coldfusion if your clients can't afford it :-)

Then again - there's plenty of free and Open Source alternatives to ColdFusion to get you started.

J

# Posted By Jensa | 6/9/08 5:34 PM

Silverlight is just another way of Microsoft to force people to use windows.

1. Microsoft releases Silverlight, available to all.

2. Silverlight (M$ hopes) becomes an internet standard with loads of sites using it.

3. M$ stops support for other operating systems.

4. people are forced to buy microsoft products.

# Posted By Ben | 8/12/08 11:08 PM

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