Microsoft Corp. today announced the availability of Silverlight 2, its solution for the creation and delivery of applications and media experiences through a Web browser.
According to Microsoft, Silverlight 2 delivers new features and tools that enable designers and developers to better collaborate while creating more accessible, more discoverable and more secure user experiences.
“We launched Silverlight just over a year ago, and already one in four consumers worldwide has access to a computer with Silverlight already installed,” said Scott Guthrie, corporate vice president of the .NET Developer Division at Microsoft, in the press release. “Silverlight represents a radical improvement in the way developers and designers build applications on the Web. This release will further accelerate our efforts to make Silverlight, Visual Studio and Microsoft Expression Studio the preeminent solutions for the creation and delivery of media and rich Internet application experiences.”
Silverlight adoption continues to grow rapidly, with penetration in some countries approaching 50 percent and a growing ecosystem that includes more than 150 partners and tens of thousands of applications. During the 17 days of the 2008 Olympics Games in Beijing, NBCOlympics.com, powered by Silverlight, had more than 50 million unique visitors, resulting in 1.3 billion page views, 70 million video streams and 600 million minutes of video watched, increasing the average time on the site (from 3 minutes to 27 minutes) and Silverlight market penetration in the U.S. by more than 30 percent. Broadcasters in France (France Televisions SA), the Netherlands (NOS), Russia (Sportbox.ru) and Italy (RAI) also chose Silverlight to deliver Olympics coverage online. In addition, leading companies such as CBS College Sports, Blockbuster Inc., Hard Rock Cafe International Inc., Yahoo! Japan, AOL LLC, Toyota Motor Corp., HSN Inc. and Tencent Inc. are building their next-generation experiences using Silverlight.
MacDailyNews Note: NBC dumps Microsoft’s Silverlight after Olympics; goes back to Adobe’s Flash for NFL – September 08, 2008
Microsoft also will release the Silverlight Control Pack and publish on MSDN the technical specification for the Silverlight Extensible Application Markup Language (XAML) vocabulary. The SCP, which will augment the built-in control set in Silverlight, will be released under the “Microsoft Permissive License,” an Open Source Initiative-approved license, and includes controls such as DockPanel, ViewBox, TreeView, Accordion and AutoComplete. The Silverlight XAML vocabulary specification, released under the Open Specification Promise (OSP), will better enable third-party ISVs to create products that can read and write XAML for Silverlight.
Beyond funding development in the free Eclipse IDE, Microsoft currently delivers tools for Silverlight with Visual Studio 2008 and Expression Studio 2. In addition, support is now extended to Visual Web Developer 2008 Express Edition, which is a free download.
Acording to Microsoft, highlights of new Silverlight 2 features include the following:
• .NET Framework support with a rich base class library. This is a compatible subset of the full .NET Framework.
• Powerful built-in controls. These include DataGrid, ListBox, Slider, ScrollViewer, Calendar controls and more.
• Advanced skinning and templating support. This makes it easy to customize the look and feel of an application.
• Deep zoom. This enables unparalleled interactivity and navigation of ultrahigh resolution imagery.
• Comprehensive networking support. Out-of-the-box support allows calling REST, WS*/SOAP, POX, RSS and standard HTTP services, enabling users to create applications that easily integrate with existing back-end systems.
• Expanded .NET Framework language support. Unlike other runtimes, Silverlight 2 supports a variety of programming languages, including Visual Basic, C#, JavaScript, IronPython and IronRuby, making it easier for developers already familiar with one of these languages to repurpose their existing skill sets.
• Advanced content protection. This now includes Silverlight DRM, powered by PlayReady, offering robust content protection for connected Silverlight experiences.
• Improved server scalability and expanded advertiser support. This includes new streaming and progressive download capabilities, superior search engine optimization techniques, and next-generation in-stream advertising support.
• Vibrant partner ecosystem. Visual Studio Industry Partners such as ComponentOne LLC, Infragistics Inc. and Telerik Inc. are providing products that further enhance developer capabilities when creating Silverlight applications using Visual Studio.
• Cross-platform and cross-browser support. This includes support for Mac, Windows and Linux in Firefox, Safari and Windows Internet Explorer.
• Forfeiture of your eternal soul upon first launch.
Silverlight 2 will be available for download on Tuesday, Oct. 14. Customers already using a previous version of Silverlight will be automatically upgraded to Silverlight 2.
Source: Pure Unadulterated Evil Randomly Directed by a Bald Monkey in Possession of History’s Most-Fortuitous Dorm Assignment
“Source: Pure Unadulterated Evil Randomly Directed by a Bald Monkey in Possession of History’s Most-Fortuitous Dorm Assignment”
— Classic…this is what I expect from MDN…
Well.
I installed Silverlight during the Olympics.
Since then, I have not come across any other web page or other content that uses it. Even Microsoft’s own Mojave experiment runs flash.
Go figure.
Boy, have i been waiting for this release…
Sometimes I think Apple needs to introduce more evil into their products:
Our new laptops will get 20 hours of battery life by tapping directly into your blood stream. Apple recommends wearing short pants to reduce risk of infection.
t,
I liked this one even better:
Acording to Microsoft, highlights of new Silverlight 2 features include the following:
…
• Forfeiture of your eternal soul upon first launch.
Whoopdy Fsckin’ Doo.
I’m actually hoping it takes off. Here in the UK M$ got to the broadcasters before the iTMS took off, meaning all the Web streams for TV content (with the notable exception of the BBC) are saddled with Windows DRM. ITV, one of the main commercial providers, has already moved it’s TV catchup service onto Silverlight and it works fine on the Mac. Other sites powered under the same provider could also do so very easily.
And that, most importantly, includes the Football League, meaning I would finally be able to listen to live County games again rather than having to follow the scorelines via Sky Sports News.
Another thing to trick users into being dependent on Microsoft. Then this thing will tie in with Office or Active X and special secret sauce that only works with Windows and now you lock even more users to Windows. No Thanks.
Silverfish should be exterminated forthwith Jeeves. Release the hounds!
I wouldn’t put Silverlight on any computer what so ever, no matter the OS it is running. Bloated Gas bag software it is.
Why don’t they fix windows before going off on all this other shit? They obviously don’t care because the idiots will go along whatever they do.
That silverlight never made it golden… I’m quietly laughing! When will M$ stop it’s lousy stuff!
Just what the world needs: another Flash, but this time made by Microsoft.
Bleh.
By one in four consumers has access to a computer running Silverlight they mean if you can get to a library or catch a plane to end up in Redmond where, after you get through security, you can go play with a Dell running XP and Silverblight
Is it less of a bloated and inefficient mess than Flash? If so, I’m all for it, MS or no. I’m getting a little tired of flash ads taking up a processing core or two just for the heck of it.
@pr
exactly my thoughts. 1 in 4 live close to a library with pcs with silverfish installed.
My answer to Flash and to Silverlight:
http://noscript.net/
i’m not associated in any way with NoScript, but developer company InformAction deserves a round of Nobel Peace Prizes for their efforts to give internet users back some control over their web browsers again.
AJAX will eventually replace Flash (and Silverlight).
OK, true. It’s not there yet. But it’s getting there…
NBC dumps Microsoft’s Silverlight after Olympics; goes back to Adobe’s Flash for NFL
Being dumped FOR Flush has to be the ultimate insult!!
as noted above, ITV’s catchup service uses Silverlight. However my experience is far from good: commercials either don’t load, repeat unnecessarily, or the programme itself goes to commercials at random, if it loads at all. This may not be the fault of Microsoft, rather the ineptitude of it.com’s programmers, but I prefer to blame MS
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”smile” style=”border:0;” /> It’s also a massive processor hog, giving about 4 frames a second on a 1.25ghz iMac, whereas the BBC’s iPlayer is flawless.
Our new laptops will get 20 hours of battery life by tapping directly into your blood stream. Apple recommends wearing short pants to reduce risk of infection.
“Our new laptops will get 20 hours* of battery life by draining your very life essence. Longer times are generally not recommended as they are fatal.”
*Time will vary according to local Reality Distortion Field (RDF) strength, and the current moon phase.
Microsoft’s half-hearted approach at competing with Adobe’s Flash, but since Microsoft only supports 1 1/2 platforms (Windows and sometimes Mac), it will have no effect on Flash’s dominance. The shills who will support Silverlight will be the shortsighted developers who have not learned that the web was meant to be open and seamlessly compatible across multiple platforms and the users who don’t know any better!
One day Silverlight will be as good as flash.
About the same time that Flash is rendered obsolete.
Major League Baseball is one of the few Silverlight partners I know of. It seems to run OK, but occasionally dumps my wi-fi connection.
Silverfish requires a Mac with an Intel processor, which is good, so I’m not even tempted to install that POS. It’s sorta like when you know the milk is sour but you still want to smell it.