Ensuring that Silverlight remains first class in the next version of Windows ...

This looks like it is starting to gain some traction

Take a look and vote if you agree with the sentiment:.

http://dotnet.uservoice.com/forums/4325-silverlight-feature-suggestions/suggestions/1894125-main-language-for-the-windows-8-development

Is silverlight first class in the current version of windows?

@PaoloM:OK,you know what I mean .... did you vote?

@PaoloM:

It is much more than just SL. The whole .Net framework seems to be deprecated in Windows 8, to be replaced by HTML5/JS. Or at least that is the message that was given to us from MS. We can argue whether we are reading too much into what they said, but the fact that they created so much confusion means that they gave us a misleading message. They should fix it ASAP.

Personally I find this whole thing is so dumb that I believe it has to be a major marketing mistake. I just can't imagine how MS could throw the whole .Net framework out the window and make HTML5/JS the only option. It doesn't compute.

In the meantime, whether true or not, they are creating immense damage to the .Net framework and developers developers developers' confidence in the future of .Net. For what? For the ability to have some dramatic "reveal" at BUILD in over 3 months from now? Once again they should fix it ASAP before the damage gets even worse.

you may read this and this and this.

43 minutes ago, Ian2 wrote

@PaoloM:OK,you know what I mean .... did you vote?

I can't find any reason to create a new application in Silverlight. Silverlight as the "main language" in Windows 8 would be very stupid.

@ZippyV: I agree, I don't think Silverlight needs to be the 'Main Language' in Windows 8, just that it should be on a par with the other progresive dev environments in Windows 8.  I don't mind if MS wants to include HTML5 as long as it isn't promoted as some kind of defacto standard - let the market decide the defacto standards (it hasn't yet) .  I think Microsoft has maybe lost its balls.

I'm not that jazzed about developing desktop applications in Silverlight, but if Microsoft is betting the farm on HTML5 then I think it really is time to start looking for another operating system.

I've never bought into the "Windows is doomed" thing before - I figured that people always need an OS on their PCs and few people really want to run Linux and OSX is only available on expensive Macs; it would be really easy for Microsoft to keep Windows going as the main OS for decades. But no, they've drunk the HTML koolaid in the IE team and now the lunatics have taken over the whole Windows division.

If you really want us to write in the half-baked, unmaintainable language that is Javascript, I'll use this as an opportunity to stop using Windows so I'm free of the children's playpen decor that passes for user-interface design at Microsoft these days.

Windows 8 is the first glimpse I've seen of the demise of the Windows era. Windows will die but it won't have been killed by Linux, Apple or the web browser - it will have committed suicide.

20 minutes ago, rhm wrote

I'm not that jazzed about developing desktop applications in Silverlight, but if Microsoft is betting the farm on HTML5 then I think it really is time to start looking for another operating system.

I've never bought into the "Windows is doomed" thing before - I figured that people always need an OS on their PCs and few people really want to run Linux and OSX is only available on expensive Macs; it would be really easy for Microsoft to keep Windows going as the main OS for decades. But no, they've drunk the HTML koolaid in the IE team and now the lunatics have taken over the whole Windows division.

If you really want us to write in the half-baked, unmaintainable language that is Javascript, I'll use this as an opportunity to stop using Windows so I'm free of the children's playpen decor that passes for user-interface design at Microsoft these days.

Windows 8 is the first glimpse I've seen of the demise of the Windows era. Windows will die but it won't have been killed by Linux, Apple or the web browser - it will have committed suicide.

If Microsoft has drunk any kind of Kool-Aid, it's the tablet Kool-Aid. If it's true that Microsoft is planning on "kilingl" .NET for the "immersive UI" of HTML5+CSS+JavaScript, they're letting the 15 million iPads that Apple sold last year be the tail wagging the 1.2 billion PC dog.

6 minutes ago, cbae wrote

...If it's true that Microsoft is planning on "kilingl" .NET for the "immersive UI" of HTML5+CSS+JavaScript...

Only an idiot would think that.

Sorry, but that's how you guys are sounding like.

13 minutes ago, PaoloM wrote

*snip*

Only an idiot would think that.

Sorry, but that's how you guys are sounding like.

Did you see the word "if" at the beginning of my sentence?

@Ian2: Seen this link over on silverlight.net, 7.2 million views!

http://forums.silverlight.net/forums/t/230502.aspx

MS really need to do some damage control asap.

10 hours ago, PaoloM wrote

*snip*

Only an idiot would think that.

Sorry, but that's how you guys are sounding like.

There is no point blaming them. This is Micrososoft's PR foul-up and no one else's.

With any luck, someone with influence at MS will sit down and watch the Apple event tomorrow to see how to relate to an enthusiastic developer community, even if your development tools are woefully out of date.

I am not worried. After they are done embracing HTML3 and screwing HTML4, and embracing HTML5 and screwing HTML6, WPF and DirectX are still the only stable Windows backward compatible platforms they are "able to maintain".

I don't understand why everyone is screaming that this is the end of .NET, are we going to build webservices using javascript, workflow systems using javascript? that's insane..

Microsoft invested lot's of money into building the parts of .NET. And I don't see them push out javascript based frameworks and solid tools to do this before the release date of windows 8. I don't know what the development of Silverlight 5 costs, but I assume it isn't that cheap to let it run and throw it away, because of html5.

The story of building these small apps in html5/js instead of silverlight isn't that bad. This probably has a larger range of supported devices than silverlight or wpf (can) have. I would not be supprised if you could just build silverlight or wpf tiles if you wanted, which might in some cases be more reasonable than building it in html5/js. But if you build them in silverlight, than they won't be supported on other devices, like the ipad or android tablets.

@erik_:

Why would Windows 8 applications need to run on iPad or Android?

It is much more important to be able to share the same code between Windows 8, WP7/8 and Xbox than iPad or Android.

I usually don't care for The Register as they are typically very anti-MS, but they have a good writeup of the situation here.

And here is what Mary-Jo Foley has to say. It really does seem that there is a big piece of the puzzle that was left out. Hopefully somone at MS wakes up and realizes the damage this is causing.

HTML5 vs Silverlight : head to head

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/eternalcoding/archive/2011/06/06/fr-html-5-vs-silverlight-5.aspx