Poll: Do you have Silverlight installed?
Just curious what the state of affairs is.
Funny that that's never been my experience with Flash. Flash sites are horrible and I avoid them if I can, but Flash can socially engineer its way onto my machine through cool little in-browser games, whereas Silverlight just wants to "enhance" my viewing of MSDN.
I think Microsoft's BizSpark site actually requires Silverlight, so once every year or so, one of my machines gets to install it so that I can renew my MSDN subscription and get the latest version of VS.NET. That's enough of a reason for me, since it's something I absolutely can't do without, but I couldn't imagine expecting my users to install it just to visit my website.
flash is too to some degree.
somehow i think they will both not survive this decade.
I have played quite a few Silverlight games. Why the attitude towards something that adds more functionality?
Maybe it's that there's already a Flash. And I already downloaded it and installed it. If you want to give me Flash-like content, go nuts, but do it with the Flash that I already have. There's no real reason to have built a second one, so I don't see any reason why I should have to install it. So I don't.
I guess if silverlight was the accepted plugin and flash was the newer player your feelings would be reversed.
And yes, naturally, if the other thing was the accepted thing, I would be happy to accept it and not the other one. Like I say, there's no bias against one or the other. I (and seemingly everybody) simply don't want both.
Sure open standards and all but the user may prefer something totally different. They may not want the fans on the back of their computer to spin up every time they go to an interactive website.
For me using silverlight is like telling people to keep away.
Microsoft also recently did a project with NASA that requires Silverlight. Thanks, Microsoft.
That they're doing this when that means blocking out a huge portion of users on Bing Maps when their main competitor has no such portability problems I think says a great deal about their priorities.
I say this is half in jest, but wonder how much of that is true.
My reasoning goes like this:
1. It happens very rarely (less than once a month) and is usually triggered by some embedded eyecandy that I don't want to see anyways. I have not yet missed out on anything because I didn't have silverlight.
2. I have suffered through flash with all its browser-crashes, security problems and other annoyances for a decade. I strictly refuse to support the adoption a new plugin-technology that would only cause me more of the same pain.
3. Silverlight being a Microsoft technology, Microsoft being the company that makes my life miserable with MSIE, doesn't help my sympathy either.
Thus, I know I'm just one little datapoint in everyone's server-logs, but I take care to ensure this datapoint will always read "Silverlight not available".
http://www.silverlightversion.com/
Does it install with Windows Update automatically or something?
Your installed version of Silverlight is: 0.0.00000.0
So I'm guessing no...
Press any key to continue.
function doit(){
var parts = Array("ver-major", "ver-minor", "ver-build", "ver-revision");
//try firefox/non-IE version.
var nav = navigator.plugins["Silverlight Plug-In"];
if (nav) {
for (var i = 0; i < 4; i++) {
document.getElementById(parts[i]).innerHTML = parseInt(nav.description.split(".")[i]).toString(); //getControl().isVersionSupported("2.0");
}
} else {
//try the IE one now.
try {
var control = new ActiveXObject('AgControl.AgControl');
//the following would be faster with a binary search, but this is "fast enough" for now.
var vers = Array(1, 0, 0, 0);
loopMatch(control, vers, 0, 1);
loopMatch(control, vers, 1, 1);
loopMatch(control, vers, 2, 10000);
loopMatch(control, vers, 2, 1000);
loopMatch(control, vers, 2, 100);
loopMatch(control, vers, 2, 10);
loopMatch(control, vers, 2, 1);
loopMatch(control, vers, 3, 1);
for (var i = 0; i < 4; i++) {
document.getElementById(parts[i]).innerHTML = vers[i].toString();
}
} catch (e) {
document.getElementById("vers-discrete").innerHTML = "Silverlight not installed.";
}
}
}
function loopMatch(control, vers, idx, inc) {
while(IsSupported(control, vers)){
vers[idx]+=inc;
}
vers[idx] -= inc;
}
function IsSupported(control, ver){
return control.isVersionSupported(ver[0]+ "."+ ver[1] + "." + ver[2] + "." + ver[3]);
}
doit();
EDIT: that is the code they are using as of this posting
EDIT: Also, a lot of commenters here are just making jokes (funny ones, sure) but not actually looking at or considering the code required to get the version number.
http://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey
now includes software, which includes Silverlight.
With ad banners in flash, and several per page, all it takes is one poorly written flash app to take down all the browser tabs I've got open.
I do not have flash nor silverlight installed on my development machines, because I can live without the distractions :)
I probably would not have subscribed to it if Silverlight had been a requirement at the time, though. I have no use for it otherwise.
If someone isn't willing to put in the effort to create a native web site why should I put in the effort to install a plug-in?
Any site that uses Silverlight better have a real good justification for using it over HTML5/CSS3/JS.
Though .NET is pretty cool so I'm not especially hostile to Silverlight.
I think the reality is that the kind of support you can get through it for certain applications is unlikely to eventuate in HTML5 any time soon and for .net developers that want any of this functionality it makes much more sense to use it than flash.
With standards gaining ground, the last thing I want to see is for Microsoft-controlled technology to again gain dominance on the web.
So, no. I do not want their shiny toys. We can build better ones without them, and they won't contain lead.
Frankly, I think that's how many of these things go. Intranet -> closed community -> specialist websites -> general web.
Actually, I probably would install it, if only because Netflix uses it for their online player.
On my two laptops: no.
No in my main Ubuntu desktop. Yes in my virtual box'd windows environment, for netflix.
I have a computer with Silverlight. Odds are that if you need Silverlight, the computer I'm sitting at doesn't have it. What should I vote? (I voted yes.)
And for all the haters... it's better than flash.
Silverlight is a me-too Flash clone that came at a time when Flash is a barely-tolerated but waning evil. It is by a company that has a severe conflicts of interest problem.
It isn't hate, and you don't have to be a hater, to see the incredible problem with it.
Since every single online advertiser out there uses Flash to make the most Flashy (no pun intended) ads to grab your attention, I promptly install Flashblock on any new machine I work on.
Silverlight however seems to have too low adaptation for it to be useful or "bulletproof" for advertisers, so whenever I get on a site actually using Silverlight, it's for something I need or want (video, interactive games, apps, etc).
I'm aware of that HTML5 covers part of that game pretty well by now, but still I find it non-obtrusive enough and generally don't mind. It's security-record and stability compared to Flash would be another reason not to mind it, but even to me, a techie, that's really secondary.