End of the line for Silverlight? I for one would not mind

Developers say Microsoft has "betrayed" them by changing strategy on the Silverlight web technology.

When first announced Silverlight was portrayed as a rival to Flash and key to getting Microsoft software running on many different devices.

Now Microsoft is slowing Silverlight development and turning its attention to web standards such as HTML5.

Silverlight will remain as a way to get apps running on Windows phone 7.

The strategy shift emerged as a result of an interview that Bob Muglia, Microsoft's head of servers and tools division, gave at the company's Professional Developers Conferenc

BBC News - Coders decry Silverlight change

I was so excited when I first started looking at Silverlight 3. "Introducing Silverlight 3" from Microsoft Press is probably one of the few technology books I have read cover to cover. Then I started to play around with it. In short, it stinks. Silverlight 3 can't even touch Flash 3, the interface is terrible and tool is so complex. I think only a .NET developer could get anything much out if and it utterly lacks Flash's intuitive interface and use.

Frankly I am of the opinion that Microsoft was wasting its time with Silverlight, that it would take Microsoft almost a decade to get it anywhere near the level of Flash. And Flash best period is probably over. From what I have seen and heard about HTML 5 its hard to see the real value of having to get a plugin at all. In 2002 Flash was pretty amazing, but it probably is time to embrace an open browser standard for defining rich multimedia.

My vote, Microsoft should probably just drop Silverlight entirely and make a deal with Adobe to create a Flash with .NET offering.

Some Silverlight Photosynths vacation pictures from India

Pictures from Jammu Kashmire made 3D in Photosynth.






Trucks trying to pass in the Ladakh mountains, they actually make it

SharePoint 2010 Silverlight Web Part, and why it is not a big deal

SharePoint 2010 Enhancements for End Users: New Silverlight Web Part & Improved UI for Adding Web Parts to a Page - SharePoint 2010 - Bamboo Nation



SharePoint 2010 Enhancements for End Users: New Silverlight Web Part & Improved UI for Adding Web Parts to a Page - SharePoint 2010 - Bamboo Nation

Bamboo Software, having seen the same demo as the rest of us, has ripped a few slides to make a piece promoting the Silverlight Web Part in 2010.

Well I have only seen the video demo from which the 2 screen grabs above come from. It seems to show that you have an OTB Silverligth Web Part, but all it does is let you place silverlight applications in your sharepoint page, not create or edit Silverlight with SharePoint content.

SharePoint can already do this, not only SharePoint 2007 but 2003 and I assume 2001. Let me show.



To prove I am not cheating I use a VM of Windows 2003 with WSS 2.0 running on Sun VirtualBox VM technology on Ubuntu Linux. The ultimate 'nothing up my sleeves kind of demo'. Here you see me installing Silverlight on the VM. (By the way this took significantly less time on VirtualBox than on VirtualPC).



I actually have created hundreds of Silverlights over the past year. Most went down with Popfly. But Photosynth is still there and seems to be growing. So I rip the silverlight Photosynth from my Photosynth.com page.



Now I just edit a simple content web editor web part.



Just past the URL for the Photosynth Silverlight in to the html editor



And you have a WSS 2.0 site running a rich silverlight 3-D photosynth.

So as it stands today the entire Silverlight Web Part in 2010 just streamlines function that already exists in in SharePoint 2003 and 2007.

Very disappointing.

What I wanted was something like Popfly that would allow Silverlight mashups of Sharepoint material for projects. As of right now you don't have that.

Photosynth - Garden Test Can You make out my garden? Use the highligts to see where major parts are.

Photosynth - Garden Test

An experiment in augmented reality. See if you can feel you are in the garden.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Photosynth - slug and me a 3D self portrait of Robert Hooker by Gail Orenstein

Photosynth - slug and me

Blogged with the Flock Browser