“A remarkable sign of changing times at Microsoft was on display Monday at Microsoft’s opening keynote session for its Mix07 conference in Las Vegas: Macs. The presentation was riddled with Macs,” Stacy Cowley reports for CRN.
Cowley reports, “The show’s breakout star is Silverlight, Microsoft forthcoming client technology for advanced, browser-based video functionality. While Microsoft is famed for its halfhearted or nonexistant support for running its software on rival platforms, the company vows Silverlight will be different: Version one is slated to run natively in Safari and Firefox as well as Internet Explorer (both version 6 and 7), and Opera support is in the works.”
Cowley reports, “To hammer home that message, Microsoft threaded Mix07’s showcase keynote with Mac-based demos. Darrin Brown, executive vice president of interactive services firm Avenue A/Razorfish, showed a demo of a streaming video application his firm developed for Netflix using Silverlight — then swapped computers to show off the same technology on a Mac running Firefox. Scott Guthrie, the Microsoft developer division general manager responsible for many of its Web technologies, relied on the Mac so much during his demos that at one point he quipped ‘and it also runs on Windows!'”
Cowley reports, “The Apple embrace had attendees twittering on Twitter, where Microsoft set up a running round-up of Mix07 commentary. One writer reported that he was ‘marveling at the number of Macs making an appearance at a Microsoft conference.’ Another posted to the world at large, ‘Have you ever heard so much airtime devoted to Macs at a Microsoft event?'”
“Of course, Microsoft’s willingness to play nicely with rival platforms has its limits. Silverlight applications will run on Macs, but the tools for building them won’t. Expression Studio, which shipped today, will remain Windows-only software, according to Wayne Smith, the group product manager in charge of the suite… Linux enthusiasts also shouldn’t hold their breath for their own Silverlight client. The Linux crowd is noisy, but Microsoft isn’t convinced it has enough market share to justify Silverlight support, said Brian Goldfarb, the group product manager helming it,” Cowley reports.
Full article here.
Alternate headline: Duplicitous bastards adopt Macs for a day to stress ‘interoperability’ message during would-be ‘Flash killer’ demo
With any luck, hopefully some attendees will get Microsoft’s correct, but unintended, message: “Go beyond Vista: Get a Mac.”
Related articles:
Couldn’t you just buy a Mac and run Windows? Microsoft CEO Ballmer: ‘No, we prefer real PCs’ – April 29, 2006
Mac users should not buy Microsoft software (or hardware) – May 16, 2003
I wouldn’t want to be an office chair right now.
The presenters better watch their backs as Ballmer will throw chairs at them for using the Mac.
MW: stage
Watch Monkeyboy prance around the stage!
Another take is that M$, while not really giving a damn about Apple, realizes that the future promises a MUCH stronger competitor in OS X, and like a lot of other companies (Dull, HP, etc.), has to adapt to that reality.
“Riddled with Macs”
I like the visual. =)
“…relied on the Mac so much during his demos”
Exactly, RELIED. It always sucks (for Microsoft) when Windows crashes during their demos.
If Microsoft is smart, they should be preparing for the next era in their business, which would revolve around new platforms and services, not just Windows.
Unfortunately, we all know Microsoft’s leadership is dumber than a box of hammers, so yeah, they’ll probably try to give this thing Windows-only features at some point.
I deeply resent your comparison.
if this took off microsoft would sure kill off support for rivals, do not trust them, wolf in sheeps clothing
LordRobin,
They already have given it Windows-only features. It only plays on Macs. You can’t use it to create anything on the Mac.
My only question is how do I make certain that I never accidentally download this malware on my Mac? I see it as the first true Mac virus.
M$ adopted Macs for the day because they wanted to ensure that their demo didn’t crash.
Block the microsoft.com domain. That should most likely prevent it.
Magic Word: “reaction”. That’s my reaction, too.
“Silverlight applications will run on Macs, but the tools for building them won’t.”
Um…what they mean is that Silverlight tools won’t work on OSX. Since Macs can run Windows, Silverlight tools WILL run on Macs. Eventually people will begin to figure this out.
Making “Silverlight” cross-platform is one thing, but if it is just another Microsoft attempt to foist their crap on us and stifle the competition then I want none of it.
Hey, let’s go after Flash. We could take that market.
No we can’t. That would be abusing our monopoly.
Not if we hide behind a bunch of Macs while we demo it.
OK. Then as soon as Flash is dead we can drop Mac support.
Now you’ve got it. Two birds with one stone.
First Flash and now this Silverfish thing…these proprietary video formats suck. Why can’t these guys support standards based video formats like H264??? It makes it crappy for developers having to be at the mercy of someone like Adobe or MS for their proprietary server and software. grrrrrrr
. . . that Microsoft makes more money off Word purchased for Macs than from any Windows-box Word customer (not Windows users in the aggregate). So the Mac = $$$$$$$.
If not, ignore this.
Carry on.
I would like to present an analogy:
Picture MS as an abusive wife beater alcoholic. Picture the Mac user as the wife who has finally realized that the only way to make the beatings stop is to get out of the relationship and cut all ties.
MS pleads: “Come back honey, I promise it will be different this time”.
Mac user: “Really? You aren’t just using Silverfish – I mean Silverlight – to trick me again? You won’t pull it away after I become dependent on it?”
MS: “I promise. This time will be different”
I don’t think so. Just say no to MS proprietary software.
i couldn’t give a sh*t you couldn’t pay me to install that thing. it’s bad enough the world is still set on M$ office.
easiest way to beat a monopoly…. just say NO!
evil evil evil
What M$ wants to do is own the creative market.
Interesting that they were able to port the entire .NET framework over to Macintosh to enable this Silverfish thingy. But MS Mac Office 2007 (2008?) won’t support VBA because it’s just too darn much work to port.
MDN is right “Duplicitous bastards!”
Whenever we get silverfish — it’s time to call the exterminator.
This is Mafia$oft’s second attempt at embrace and extinguish. They are just going to be sneakier about it this time. Kinda like Apple.
The only way for Microsoft to improve their image is to do things differently than they’ve done them before, but change comes hard to a company drunk on its own success. Even as the world changes around them, they still act like nothing’s changed and trot out this dog-and-pony show. It will convince the gulliable, the unobservant, and the fool. It’s too bad for Microsoft that there are fewer and fewer of those people all the time, because most of us have already been burned by their antics. No more.
that’s just typical microsoft… don’t fall for the traps, guys… look what they did with IE for mac? seriously, they are just doing it to get support. and when they finally get enough market share to call the shots, they’ll quit the mac platform like they did w/ almost everything else…
jack asses…
Looks like MS may be taking an “Embrace or Die” approach.