Having support for Mac, Firefox, Opera and Safari is terrific news for WPF/E. The elephant in the room though is Linux support. If Linux were supported in the next CTP, this would be unstoppable.
--Oren
Yep yep!!
I think its a matter of watch this space when it comes to Linux.
Personally, has to be mobile support next :) but think that might be a little while longer.
Ben
We'll continue to listen to customers and support new platforms as needed. What drives your need for a Linux solution - enterprise desktop, home desktop, device, other?
Joe
We're talking about nothing less than fusioning the Desktop and the Web, this is not like, yet another desktop presentation layer or yet another browser.
So we we must know HOW LONG it will be supported. Answer has to be "forever", be it by Microsoft or another party.
If it is just long enough to win over developpers and become the de-facto standard then drop asleep it is no good, we had this scenario with IE already (just been bitten by IE7, by the way).
So Microsoft should come up with a scheme (open-source or other) that demonstrates unequivocally its commitment to long-term, seamless evolution of WPF/E or it will be difficult to win over hearts from the AJAX camp.
A more linux-friendly attitude would be encouraging to start with :)
The statement about overcoming "political resistance" cannot be overstated. Although Joe makes a very pragmatic "requirements and needs" based statement when he says "we'll continue to listen to customers and support platforms as needed", supporting Linux will be far more of an olive-branch-style strategic move. Please, just do it, announce something significant soon, and make my life easier.
Also, I think it's the Linux device, not just the desktop where a large need will emerge. That (WPF/E support for devices) can be the subject of another post, however.
Kevgor
Hi,
I got the information from Microsoft Germany that Microsoft will listen to the developers and end users. If there is a big request on supporting Linux they will be very open to build a plug-in for Linux. My hope currently is that Windows Mobile will be the next that will get the plug-in.
Michael
> What drives your need for a Linux solution - enterprise desktop, home desktop, device, other?
definately enterprise desktop. for some customers, linux support is a major requirement. some public sector tenders go as far as requiring it, which basically means that they cannot consider offers that are not cross-browser, cross-plattform. (in fact, with some customers it's hard enough to require .net on the server, but for vertical, packaged software, there's usually a way.) as far as enterprise systems are concerned, silverlight as announced is not cross-plattform, because nobody cares about apple for enterprise desktops.
for an ISV, betting on silverlight is quite risky for this reason. we might be lucky and get silverlight for linux one day, we might be lucky and never lose a contract even without linux support, but we also might have to rebuild all the silverlight stuff one day using flex or some other technology. for custom projects, silverlight will often be ruled out from the start, meaning that our developers would have to learn two technologies. these scenarios would make flex a quite tempting alternative.
ironically, many customers - especially in the public sector - who are very vocal about linux support don't actually use it, or even have concrete plans to switch. however, don't think that a little silverlight here and there in their enterprise apps is going to lock them in. they'll just push for alternatives, meaning that silverlight loses while the cross-platform competition keeps running, for the most part on windows only. (did i mention the irony?)
what MS-minded enterprise developers want is an integrated development plattform that covers everything from visual studio to the web server to the client - but chosing the client must be up to the customer. there is always the added value of optional integration with MS environments (AD, Exchange, Office...) that will shy the customer away from the world of command-lines and PAMs, but the core functionality of a _web_ app can't be bound to a windows client.
another matter is the development crowd. without serious, sustained linux support, many developers won't touch silverlight out of general principle. but i'm quite sure you're aware of this.
asking for concrete needs or usage scenarios is not going to answer any of these problems though. view it that way: you should be lucky that, while having to build a linux version eventually, this is only to quiet the politics, not to really cover a huge existing linux user base ;-)
regards, stefan
This product is promoted as cross-platform, but I see only Windows/Mac support? It's maybe a bit misleading...
I dont use linux on my desktop but I think it would be fair to treat everyone same if someone wants to use silverlight dont force him to chose browser and OS thx for your time.
greetz
jo
How many devices is Flash currently supported on? Cell phones, Pocket PCs, Playstation 3. For me, on most projects, it will not be feasible to begin developing in Silverlight until support is added for a number of popular mobile and home-entertainment devices.
If I am developing entertainment or social content, I must have support for Playstation 3, a large number of mobile devices, Macintosh (Safari and Firefox), Pocket PC, and Windows.
YouTube is currently easily accessible from Playstation 3. If Silverlight hasn't even announced that talks with device manufacturers/distributors and communications networks have begun, there is no reason for me to even contemplate using Silverlight.
Given what I currently know, I can only use Silverlight for content delivery to highly targeted and controlled audiences -- basically, just Intranets. I understand that technology adoption is difficult, but before you try to compete with Flash, why don't you get a good implementation strategy together first.
BTW: When is .NET going to be ported to other platforms? It would have been nice if Microsoft either directly took it upon themselves, or at least provided more support to projects like Mono.
