Filed under: Developer, Internet, Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Adobe, Apple, Microsoft
Dev Chair : Rebooting the web
by Alex Hung May 4th 2007 at 10:00AM
CoreCLR, cross-platform .Net Framework, DLR, Silverlight, the list goes on! But what is so great about them all, you ask? Currently we have the .Net Framework with ASP.NET AJAX and a library of free components to help web developers. But despite what those web monkeys try to convince us desktop developers, web programming sucks in general, and JavaScript/CSS in particular, because we have to deal with the web browser and the messy standard(s).
With Silverlight and CoreCLR, developers can now program the whole application/user experience in the same framework/environment on both the server side and client side without any need to switch languages and mindset, which is the most difficult part. And with support for dynamic languages such as Ruby and IronPhyton, developers who previously shunt Microsoft technologies now have less of an excuse to do so!
As far as Silverlight itself is concerned, I am not going into the details. Lots have already been written, so go visit Scott Hanselman's site and read for yourself. To summarize my reaction though: after reading Scott's post as well as many others, I really don't think it is hyperbole to say "Microsoft rebooted the Web" on May 1, 2007, as Jeff Prosise, co-founder of Wintellect was quoted on Scobleizer.
One of the biggest surprise is that Silverlight works on the Mac, runs the same code without any modification and renders the screen identically between the two platforms. This is a big win for developers because we will be able to cater to the Mac platform without doing anything extra, potentially.
But why target the OS X platform? Why not some flavor of Linux? I believe that in order to support Microsoft's web strategy, they need to get more web developers onto their side. With Silverlight, Microsoft can now go head to head against Adobe's Flash and FLEX framework. But to really fight Adobe, Microsoft needs to also entice content developers to use their tools instead of Adobe's, and this is why the Mac support make a lot of sense.
Will this strategy work? It depends on how 'deep' the Mac support will be. If all we get are a browser plug-in for the Mac browsers and the .Net Framework then I do not think much will change. Perhaps some ex-Microsoft developers who have switched to Linux/OS X will switch back because now they can use Ruby or Python. To effect substantial momentum from Mac developers, Microsoft will need to actively support the Mac platform (such as giving out free TextMate application bundle for all the programming languages), which - if their Mac division is anything to go by - they typically haven't done well in the past.
Personally, I longed for a fully featured IDE (possibly from Microsoft, but more likely than not) that allows me to develop .Net/Silverlight application on the Mac without any loss in functionality or limitation. Then I will have half a chance on convincing my boss to get me a Mac Pro for the office.
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They key to getting good at Graveyard Shift is learning to use ...
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Big Nick said 10:39AM on 5-04-2007
"But why target the OS X platform? Why not some flavor of Linux?"
Brad Abrams (on show 233 of DotNetRocks podcast (www.dotnetrocks.com)) Basically said that the only reason they chose Mac as a target was because there are "Key" people who use Macs. CEO's, Creative Directors, etc. If those important people cant see your content on their machines you're never going to get buy-in from them to use it as a viable technology.
Or something to that effect.
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Victor Agreda, Jr. said 10:47AM on 5-04-2007
Big Nick, that is pretty logical. You will find more creative directors using Macs than PC's, never mind Linux boxes. And MS appears to be "never minding" the Linux faction pretty well.
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Alex Hung said 10:59AM on 5-04-2007
Exactly! Did I forget to include that in my original post? Oh well... :-)
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Todd said 11:05AM on 5-04-2007
I have a seriously lack of confidence in Microsoft's credibility to maintain cross platform compatibility. Adobe CEO Bruce Chizen reminds us:
"...Microsoft, historically, has never demonstrated a commitment to maintaining a cross-platform solution." He cited Windows Media Player and Internet Explorer as examples of Microsoft products that are still being developed for Windows but have been ended for the Mac platform.
Chizen was happy to suggest that Silverlight may suffer the same fate.
"Even though they say Silverlight is going to be cross-platform, and maybe the first [version] will be, I'm not sure our customers or the people that are trying to deliver that content will have the degree of confidence that if they go with Microsoft, they'll be able to provide them with a complete cross-platform solution forever," he said.
Also, a question for Mr. Hung, when you are inside the Silverlight IDE, do you see the means to prompt users to make the Silverlight the default player, usurping Flash?
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Mike J said 7:17PM on 5-04-2007
I'm extremely skeptical about what the offering actually will be versus what they're claiming. As stated, they don't have the best track record when it comes to supporting anything besides Windows. And despite the graphic above showing Opera as one of the viable end-user alternatives I was informed that my browser (Opera) wasn't supported when I went to check out their demos last week.
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Pan said 4:09PM on 5-04-2007
I would like to add Excel VBA for Mac to the list of products that MS dropped support for!
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Racetrack-Owner said 5:27PM on 5-04-2007
Todd, somebody needs to remind Chizen about little things like Windows NT for the Alpha processor. Funny, I don't remember being able to buy Adobe products that ran on DEC Alphas...
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evano said 9:27PM on 5-06-2007
Funny how Mr. Chizen forgets his company -- after owing its early existence to it's adoption on the Mac -- dropping Premiere Pro from the Mac back in '03 (finally returning this summer with the CS3 package). He forgets, too, that there has been no Universal Binary support for Intel-based Macs since they were introduced in early 2006; the only way to get full-speed performance on Macs is to upgrade to the new CS3 products which finally have begun to arrive this spring.
I thought Microsoft had a patent on FUD.
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