Microsoft Says Silverlight Installed More Than Firefox, Safari and Chrome Combined

I tried installing SilverLight a week ago. After installation and a restart, my browser informed me that SilverLight was not installed. I repeated the process with several browsers and several computers, and never got it to work. So I was told +/- 10 times that SilverLight was installed, when in reality it wasn't, and when I have no intention of ever trying to use it again.

Now I wonder how many other people that's happened to...

Considering Microsoft.com is one of the most-trafficked websites on the internet (Currently #15 http://alexa.com/topsites), and considering you're required to install Silverlight before MS lets you browse it... yeah, it'll have a high adoption rate.

Though my first response was to say BS on thinking about it I actually believe them on this one. As the article points out they landed a few high profile events which got a lot of people to install the plug in (albeit an earlier version than 2.0 which is the first worthwhile version imho)

Don't get me wrong, I don't expect them to over take Flash any time soon. But I think this gives Microsoft Developers enough incentive to use Silverlight rather than jumping ship to Flash (which is much harder for a .net deverloper to pick up). In that aspect I think this is a victory.

For better or worse the great thing about being Microsoft is you just need to hang on to what you already have to be successful

Isn't the competition here Silverlight vs. Flash. And isn't Flash installed on more than IE, Firefox, Safari and Chrome combined?

(Note that sounds ridiculous, but I'm fairly certain it's true)

So, given the competition is Flash, why the jab at other browsers? Or is Microsoft declaring war on the open web?

(edit: Somewhat surprised that Techcrunch actually makes the same points, I'd commented before reading it)

Did they pass out silverlight via Windows update?