[thelist] MS Silverlight

Shawn K. Quinn skquinn at speakeasy.net
Sun May 27 16:16:07 CDT 2007


On Sun, 2007-05-27 at 22:44 +1000, Ken Schaefer wrote:
> This is what is called "pure speculation" on your part. Maybe
> Microsoft wants
> to wants to offer hosted applications on non-Windows platforms to
> compete
> with, well, certain other company(ies). WFPe (aka Silverlight)
> certainly has
> a big $$ behind it at the moment within Microsoft. Whether it
> continues to do
> so probably depends a lot on whether it's adopted or not (by content
> creators).

What is not "pure speculation" on my part is the historical data that
clearly supports an assertion that one plays along with Microsoft at
their own peril:

Microsoft made Internet Explorer, first as a separate browser (which was
actually not bad), then as a component of Windows, completely breaking
compliance with many parts of the HTML, HTTP, and CSS standards along
the way. Microsoft made Outlook (and Outlook Express) which was and is
in many ways either non-compliant with the RFCs in question (2822, I
think) or at least in violation of commonly accepted principles of
netiquette. Microsoft copied the BSD TCP/IP stack, and said to heck with
*many* good practices embodied therein, one of which made it very easy
to UDP port scan a Windows NT box back in the day. Windows 95 was the
first Internet capable "consumer" version of Windows, and *no* attention
was paid to security; it took Microsoft most of a decade to realize
"hey, you know, this security stuff might actually be worth paying
attention to".

> Your earlier comment:
> 
> > The "media experiences and rich interactive applications" seem to
> imply 
> > this is yet another vector for mostly garbage like most current
> Flash 
> > movies
> 
> demonstrates your feelings towards this type of content amply. Why
> would a
> company touting this type of technology want to cater to you in the
> first
> place? 

Your use of the word "cater" here is completely inaccurate. The
companies who do such stupid things like use Flash movies for navigation
are expending additional money to *lose* part of their audience. Not
that Flash movies are the only way to do this, mind you; it's been done
with needless use of Javascript and Java where plain HTML would work
just fine and reach 100% of the target audience. They don't have to do
anything special to "cater to [me]" besides good Web authoring practices
that they should be doing anyway to reach the widest possible audience.
(Of course, there aren't too many left that actually know what good Web
authoring practices are, but that's another rant for another day.)

I have no real problem with Flash, Java, or Javascript, as long as there
are alternatives where these are not available. It can be as easy as a
simple HTML link alongside a Flash intro movie instead of (stupidly)
making "skip intro" part of the Flash movie itself.

-- 
Shawn K. Quinn <skquinn at speakeasy.net>




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