Is Microsoft Setting Its Sights on Adobe?
WPF meets the browser as Silverlight, minus 3D and data binding features
May 15, 2007 —
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It may be fresh out of the gate, but Microsoft’s Silverlight is already being viewed by many industry watchers as a potential threat to Adobe Systems’ ubiquitous Flash platform. But, is taking on Flash Microsoft’s motive, or is the real story more nuanced than that?
Microsoft unveiled Silverlight, a platform for building advanced vector graphics into rich Internet applications, on April 16. Silverlight is a cross-browser plug-in formerly known as WPF/E, or Windows Presentation Foundation Everywhere.
Windows Presentation Foundation is the graphical subsystem of .NET 3.0 and is built into Windows Vista. Silverlight is an offshoot of WPF for the Web that is powered by Extensible Application Markup Language (XAML) and JavaScript, making it interoperable with AJAX Web applications. However, Silverlight lacks some WPF features, including 3D graphics and data binding.
According to Microsoft, Silverlight is cross-platform: It is available for Macintosh as well as Windows and is compatible with Firefox and Safari as well as Internet Explorer. No Linux support has been announced, but other platforms are being evaluated, said Keith Smith, a group product manager in the development division at Microsoft.
At least one Linux distributor, Ubuntu, would love the opportunity to port the Silverlight runtime to Linux. According to Ubuntu spokesman Joseph Eckert, “Microsoft has stated that Silverlight is a cross-platform plug-in. ‘Cross-platform’ does not mean ‘two-platform,’ and if the Microsoft team needs help getting this to work on Ubuntu, we would be delighted to help them accelerate that. If it’s open source—who knows? There might finally be some Microsoft code in a Linux distribution.”
Microsoft’s Smith noted that Silverlight applications could be hosted on any server technology to reach the broader Web community. Any Web application server can serve up Silverlight content, said a spokesperson. Microsoft is likewise looking into supporting other browsers and devices.
‘ADOBE KILLER’ RUMORS
Over the past year, the rumor mill has whispered that Microsoft was readying an “Adobe killer.” Smith denied that Microsoft is targeting Adobe. Indeed, Smith said that Flash and Silverlight work well side-by-side in a browser, “This is not a rip-and-replace proposition.” Smith acknowledged the inevitability of a third-party translation tool.
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