by Don Burnett
Flash Magazine has a very interesting perspective about Silverlight this week, one that I don't share.. Let me start by saying I have used "Flash" for years, even when it was called FutureSplash animator and could barely render and animate vector graphics, so I have some perspective on this too.. First before going into this let me say all of my comments will be relating to client-side technology, stuff that runs in the browser as a plug-in. That means at most we are talking about it versus two other technology pools, Java and Flash.
Flash people are usually designers with some development knowledge usually great with scripting.. If you go further you are really focused on ActionScript development..
In the article the author makes the quote "I'm not dismissing Silverlight by any means, but what was revealed last week was no revolution and certainly not a threat to Flash." I whole heartedly agree.. If you look at Silverlight's positioning it's a very different plug-in with a great graphics system. What does it do for you however? Well in my mind it has a lot more in common with Java.. Why? Well, underneath Silverlight is a very compact version of the .NET framework.. In fact, it's a full application development framework embedded in a browser plug-in. That fact alone makes it more like Java. Silverlight applications can be self-contained on the client and don't require things like "browser postbacks" to server technology. That means full fledged applications like you see and develop on Windows are actually possible. Is this as advanced as Flash's own runtime, in my humble opinion YES.. What effect does this have on the Flash designer community, probably not a lot except for the fact that in Windows based web development circles unless these folks become proficient with Silverlight, they won't be as needed anymore. The .Net programming community can step in and do all of their design and UI work in .Net natively on Silverlight. So the .Net framework will be more ubiquitous and people will start doing all sides of applications including web versions completely in .Net..
The .Net Programming Community is now your competition..
Don't count those guys out, with the features of the framework and bringing .Net to the browser window, where most people feel all desktop applications are headed, this is a serious juggernaut headed the way of the Adobe Flash community. When they get good and their designs start looking great due to their new XAML based workflow which speeds up the design developer workflow model significantly, this could start impacting heavily on everyone else's web application technology. My concern is more with how .Net will be a competitor to Java than it actually is the Flash community. Everything in Silverlight is very different right down to the routed event model.
Silverlight is also moving to non-Windows mobile platforms like Nokia as well, so that means there will be "Silverlight Applications" everywhere.. This is of significant importance and value as the web interface shrinks to support Mobile functionality. In this regard they may find up against Google's mobile platform. Since Flash/AIR hasn't shown up on the iPhone yet, I will reserve comment on that possible competition.
It will be interesting to watch the .Net Framework under Silverlight grow and see how applications based on Java stack up to .Net.. I am not worried so much about comparing them to Flash at this point. I think Java applications (non web server based) offer a sophistication not found in Flash/Flex/Air, because of what their framework can do. That's why I am more interested to see Java and .Net go head-to-head with Silverlight..Why? Let me launch into my next point..
Quoting Flash Magazine.."Flash has become a standard. Users will be disappointed if their browser can't run Flash. As Flash has become more powerful, it has started doing things online that formerly were not possible. Flash is the number one choice for online video, animation and small web games. But Flash can do so much more: advanced Rich Internet Applications (RIA), text processing, slide shows, image editing, video mixing, audio tools, , executive dashboards and great looking report generators - Flash has become a real threat to Microsoft and Silverlight is their answer."
I hardly see Flash as the holy grail of web video or a threat, the previous winner was Microsoft's Windows Media Services (and the ubiquitous WMV format). Why? simply put Windows Media Server's capabilities, including live streaming, pay-per-view and many TCP based protocols for efficient bandwidth delivery and above all lower costs and a better ROI. Windows Media Player invented this industry almost completely. Flash Video is newer to the scene, and yes it does have H.264 support and it's the standard file format used in You Tube. Question for you: Do you really enjoy the fuzzy video and bad frame rates on encoded material in YouTube anymore? It also plays on about 98 percent of the machine due to it's installed browser based.. But on the server side of things there is serious indication that it's still not beating Windows Media Server for installs.
As far as the other stuff mentioned in Flash's favor. Did we see most of this happening before Silverlight 1.0 came out and gave Adobe and Sun Java something to think about? Probably not.
.Net Everywhere! is the word of the day! (It's not really Silverlight Everywhere! but what sounds better, I ask you?)
I don't really see Flash as the target but maybe a close bystander, as Microsoft realizes that applications have to happen in the browser, and it's a browser centric world, not a "desktop" one anymore.. This makes Microsoft extremely competitive on the desktop and the browser and on devices, the same XAML design code and applications technology can be used everywhere including non-Microsoft led platforms.. Microsoft has been doing desktop applications for years and now that they have made web development as close to this model as they can possibly go, I think we'll see some things others have said were impossible.
Other than these subtle points I am making, I was impressed with the fair/balanced and overall review Flash Magazine gave of Silverlight 2 and the Expression Studio 2.0 package.. They seem to be pretty on with everything they had to say..
-Don
2 comments:
Right. I've always said that Adobe would need to embed the JVM to remain competitive long term in this environment. AS is getting better - but it's no where near the level of the .NET framework. .NET powers trading systems, massive web infrastructure, even Expression Blend.
Glad you liked the article :)
I do think that MS will be serious competition though, especially when it comes to Web Applications. RIA is after all "THE" word at Adobe these days and the ability to easily port existing .NET code to Silverlight could boost the rate of Silverlight apps quickly. This does of course require MS to re-train all their developers about the new possibilities, but that could go fast given the budgets they have. I've now heard so many stories about MS offering Flash and .NET shops huge budgets for doing Silverlight.
Time will tell and it'll be fun to have for all involved :)
J
Post a Comment