12 Comments

• Jules said on Dec 11 2011 at 11:17 AM

  Such a shame that Microsoft gave up on Silverlight, it was a great Technology, and was the core of our (now Cancelled) Line of Business Application. Microsoft lost faith in its own great technology, so we have to go back to HTML/Javascript. So Long Microsoft.
  BTW whats the point of this SL 5 Release now ?

• Horacio said on Dec 11 2011 at 7:00 PM

  What's the point you made a comment? Stay with your fantastic HTML/Javascript technology and leave us with our poor and abandoned Silverlight. We will use it only till 2021-2025, and may be migrating it to WinRT for another 10 years. Stay using the same criteria. Thanks for the visit and good bye!

• Leonidas said on Dec 12 2011 at 7:48 AM

  Jules, sorry to be blunt, but have you been smoking pot? MS has already commited to the continued development of silverlight...

• Silly Architect said on Dec 12 2011 at 10:51 AM

  I was let go after delievering a very large Line of Business Application in Silverlight. Everyone pointed to the bad decision to go Silverlight over HTML5. I can spend all day providing technical reason for my choice, but if Micosoft says I'm wrong, where do I stand? How long before you will get a chance to build a LOB app with WinRT inside a corporation? 7 years?

• Chris said on Dec 12 2011 at 5:47 PM

  So what, exactly, is the point of Silverlight 5? Thanks to the geniuses at Redmond for killing Silverlight by a thousand cuts of omission, I doubt that I will ever have a chance again to start a new Silverlight project. For this I will NEVER forgive Microsoft and will NEVER defend any decisions by Microsoft again, irrespective of whether I agree with decision or not. I have focused on MS-centric technology for most of my development career. It's time for a change.

• Jules said on Dec 13 2011 at 8:54 AM

  Its Jules Again
  Don't get me wrong, I do love developing in Silverlight and I hate the thought of Javascrpt/ HTML. Only a fool would through away strong Compiler Type safe code for developing LOB Web Applications in Javascript. But hey ho, I cannot see the choices at the moment. I guess we go with WinRT Metro Apps vs HTML, but accept only MS platform constraint.
  Leonidas, please show me where MS have shown any real Commtment to Silverlight Web on WinRT in BUILD11 ?
  I just hope those of you who did not have their SL projects cancelled, will be able to demonstrate the superiority of Silverlight over HTML in capability, if not in Reach. Hopefully then Microsot will then be pursuaded to put Silverlight back as a first class citizen on both the WinRT(Web) and Mobile(Web) browser platforms.
  But I, and a lot of others like 'Silly Architect' have been let down by Microsofts lack of conviction and confidence in their own technology. Really I'm just bitchen badly over this.
  Jules

• alpha said on Dec 15 2011 at 2:16 PM

  In Silverlight 4.0, because the Web Browser did not work in In-Browser web pages, I had to use the xamlHTMLViewer from Infragistics to display Crystal Reports. This xamlHTMLViewer allowed Crystal Reports to be displayed and downloaded to excel or PDF.
  
  Last week, I upgraded to Silverlight 5.0 and after several hours of setting registry, signing xap file and adding certificates to trusted publisher in IE8 per this article http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg192793(v=vs.95).aspx, I was finally able to get Crystal Reports to display in the Web Browser control in an In-Browser web app.
  
  Unfortunately, I am unable to export to Excel or PDF or any other format from the Crystal Report Viewer Export button. Usually a file download inquiring if you want to open or save window would pop up. It doesn't happen any longer.
  
  Using WebDevelopmentHelper and Fiddler, I am geting a 200 Status and no error is displaying.
  
  Any ideas why the file download no longer appears?
  .
  

• R. Lawson said on Dec 17 2011 at 4:10 PM

  @Leonidas said: "Jules, sorry to be blunt, but have you been smoking pot? MS has already commited to the continued development of silverlight..."
  
  A few of your words caught my attention but mostly "commited to the continued development of Silverlight".
  
  What information do you have that Microsoft is committed to the continued development of Silverlight?
  
  If we are talking WinRT which continues the life of XAML (a good thing) I don't see that as continuing the life of Silverlight.
  
  The three primary reasons to use Silverlight or similar solutions are user experience, ease of deployment, and ubiquity.
  
  Without the ubiquity, I see no point in developing Sivlerlight - just use WPF (or WinRT when ready) and you get superior UX and a relatively good deployment model using Click-Once.
  
  Ubiquity is the most compelling reason one would want to use Silverlight over WPF or WinRT. Without that, forget about it.
  
  So I reiterate myself - what information do you have that a (ubiquitous) Silverlight lives on?
  
  Most of the Silverlight team is moving on - John Papa as you know (if you are reading his blog) moved on also. All signs point to WinRT and the "ubiquity story" seems to be HTML4 and JavaScript... oh and speaking of smoking pot - HTML5. That will be ready any day.... you can start holding your breath now.
  
  I love it how everyone is advertising HTML5 - yet when you look under the covers it really JavaScript. I guess if you use the HTML5 tag you can make the claim - LOL.
  
  A banner on this site has some cool stuff - build in XAML and publish int HTML5: http://www.componentart.com/default.aspx. Pretty sure it's alot of JavaScript under the covers and very little HTML5, but the most important thing to take away is "build in XAML". I suspect that web developers are going to finally be forced to learn XAML. Looks like Silverlight developers may eventually get the last laugh.

• Daní said on Dec 19 2011 at 11:18 AM

  How long before you'll get a chance to build a LOB app with HTML + javascript comparable to those you can currently create with SLV5?

• JM said on Dec 20 2011 at 5:14 PM

  Firestarter was the most upsetting aspect of the abandonment of Silverlight. A year ago MS got on stage and swore up and down that Silverlight was an important technology, and that they were behind it.
  
  They staged a whole event, and people trusted them. Products, and sometimes careers were ended when they walked away.
  
  The thing I don't understand is: Why the show? I was involved in a project that would never have gone Silverlight had it not been for the Firestarter encouragement (we considered it too risky, but we believed Microsoft when they put on a whole event to show that they were behind it).

• The Architect said on Dec 27 2011 at 10:56 AM

  I have mixed feelings about MS's handling of Silverlight. As a developer, Silverlight is damn near perfect (when mixed with third parties like DevForce and Telerik) for our internal projects and more specifically, our forward facing products. Officially supported beyond 2020 (Silverlight 5) I feel the development community is the real reason for its demise. Far more people are coders as a job than are truly passionate about development. Silverlight has a major learn curve for many developers and LOB wasn't a real consideration until SL4.
  
  On the other hand, as CEO of a software company, I'm kinda happy now I know there is little chance that my competitors will be using it.
  
  That means I get to use Silverlight for what I see as its only true and sustained purpose, offering a premium, cross platform, user experience.
  
  Of course, I have spent a small part of the last year developing an complete UI framework (I call it Morpheus) on which all of our apps are built. So there is little chance I'll go back to fricken Java anytime soon. Gak!
  
  MS needs to showcase more (or some, or any!!) Silverlight LOB apps to get the executives, PMs, and lead developers on board. But either way, I'm satisfied.

• GS said on Dec 29 2011 at 2:13 AM

  .net , c# are fantastic, javascript is a pain. Now what is Microsoft missing?
  Surly they are missing market penetration with an OS for a phone/ a tablet.
  And in my opinion should keep it absulutely the same.
  Else they will dillute their own presence and create another windows CE that will just die out.
  They have this with windows phone. So they need to do everything they can to support windows phone! silverlight/ Windows Phone apps. and the whole .net libary together with Frameworks such as MVVM-light, Caliburn- Micro,Prism, Cinch, Catel. are already geared up for this..so why now go back to javascript toegther with html5? what advantage does microsoft have over android...?