Silverlight Status
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What is the current status of Silverlight in the Microsoft technology stack? The last time I used Silverlight was 2010 or so, and I'm aware that v5 was the last major release made. I'm interviewing for a new job and I want to be able to speak with authority regarding the viability of using it. Beyond the fact that MS isn't updating it anymore, is there any reason not to recommend it? The only other alternative is MVC, but I'm much more comfortable with Silverlight.
".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
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You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
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When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013Silverlight is the predecessor to XAML. Xaml is the windows one standard for GUI's.
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What is the current status of Silverlight in the Microsoft technology stack? The last time I used Silverlight was 2010 or so, and I'm aware that v5 was the last major release made. I'm interviewing for a new job and I want to be able to speak with authority regarding the viability of using it. Beyond the fact that MS isn't updating it anymore, is there any reason not to recommend it? The only other alternative is MVC, but I'm much more comfortable with Silverlight.
".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
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You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
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When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013DOA It would be hard to recommend something that is frozen in time and will need an add-in in order to work.
The report of my death was an exaggeration - Mark Twain
Simply Elegant Designs JimmyRopes Designs
I'm on-line therefore I am. JimmyRopes -
Silverlight, as a pure web development platform is no longer under active feature enhancement development. This doesn't mean that there won't be bug fixes and the likes, only that the main plugin based component will not see significant new features.
This is quite true, Silverlight as a technology is no longer being developed, however Microsoft will support it for many more years. However, the bigger issue is that Chrome will likely start to block Silverlight (and other plug-ins) in the near future: http://blog.chromium.org/2013/09/saying-goodbye-to-our-old-friend-npapi.html[^] The FireFox browser is also following suite (although I can't find a reference to that right now). RIP Silverlight!
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What is the current status of Silverlight in the Microsoft technology stack? The last time I used Silverlight was 2010 or so, and I'm aware that v5 was the last major release made. I'm interviewing for a new job and I want to be able to speak with authority regarding the viability of using it. Beyond the fact that MS isn't updating it anymore, is there any reason not to recommend it? The only other alternative is MVC, but I'm much more comfortable with Silverlight.
".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
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You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
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When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013Silverlight is very much alive and kicking. It just morphed into "modern apps" for windows phone and windows 8.x Internally at microsoft, these technologies are refered to as "Silverlight 8". But you off course mean Silverlight as a webbrowser plugin. Well, as others have said, it's supported through 2021. So I consider it still a viable technology to use for applications that typically don't have a long lifespan of 5+ years. For apps with longer lifespan... Silverlight is probably not the best idea. For me, the go-to tech for line of business apps now is either ASP MVC for web or WPF for desktop. And it makes me sad, because I love XAML and MVVM.
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I'm being very careful in my wording as the plugin is no longer going to be enhanced significantly, but Silverlight itself is now the underpinnings of things like Windows Phone (including the strategy of XAML development across the board with the Universal apps proposition).
Pete O'Hanlon wrote:
but Silverlight itself is now the underpinnings of things like Windows Phone
Actually that would be WPF, silver light is just a subset of WPF targetting the Web: Windows Phone 8.0 Roadmap[^] I wouldn't invest anything in Silverlight itself. WPF on the other hand is far from dead IMO. The only threat to WPF is microsft itself with javascript and HTML5 support on Windows 8 and Phone.
To alcohol! The cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems - Homer Simpson ---- Our heads are round so our thoughts can change direction - Francis Picabia
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I think it's 'no further development' but it looks like they are committed to supporting the client runtime until at least 2021, which should be well long enough for a web app. So I don't think there are any obsolescence reasons not to recommend it. However, like Flash or Java applets, it relies on users installing browser plugins, and if it's a public release some of them may not want to do that. In general I'd recommend against using plugin-based thick clients unless the application requires it.
It may be supported until 2021 but clearly new devices and apps/plugins wont! I used to use the OS getamap service in the uk which was excellent but only supports silverlight, so when I switched from windows laptop to chromebook I had to give it up, I spoke to os and they do not have any clear plans as I can see to move to html5 however I notice that on there site it mentions silverlight supported on 60 percent of internet platforms which has to be a concern for any company with such a product as this percentage is not going to increase!
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Pete O'Hanlon wrote:
but Silverlight itself is now the underpinnings of things like Windows Phone
Actually that would be WPF, silver light is just a subset of WPF targetting the Web: Windows Phone 8.0 Roadmap[^] I wouldn't invest anything in Silverlight itself. WPF on the other hand is far from dead IMO. The only threat to WPF is microsft itself with javascript and HTML5 support on Windows 8 and Phone.
To alcohol! The cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems - Homer Simpson ---- Our heads are round so our thoughts can change direction - Francis Picabia
I know what Silverlight is, but if you look at WP and WinRT, they share a much closer model to Silverlight than they do with WPF.
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I know what Silverlight is, but if you look at WP and WinRT, they share a much closer model to Silverlight than they do with WPF.
Pete O'Hanlon wrote:
I know what Silverlight is
Sorry, didn't mean to imply otherwise. What I mean is that Silverlight is not going anywhere anymore, but WPF is. And they are very similar to each other except, Silverlight is focuses the web. And you're right, silverlight's navigational flow resembles well WP model.
To alcohol! The cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems - Homer Simpson ---- Our heads are round so our thoughts can change direction - Francis Picabia
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What is the current status of Silverlight in the Microsoft technology stack? The last time I used Silverlight was 2010 or so, and I'm aware that v5 was the last major release made. I'm interviewing for a new job and I want to be able to speak with authority regarding the viability of using it. Beyond the fact that MS isn't updating it anymore, is there any reason not to recommend it? The only other alternative is MVC, but I'm much more comfortable with Silverlight.
".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
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You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
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When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013It name now serves as a differentiator between "real WP 8.1" and "WP Silverlight 8.1" apps :) so I think this is the last time we see Silverlight name, now that W 8.1 and WP 8.1 share the same core finally. We should be working on business apps for Windows 8.1, Silverlight as we knew it (web hosted) is dead
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What is the current status of Silverlight in the Microsoft technology stack? The last time I used Silverlight was 2010 or so, and I'm aware that v5 was the last major release made. I'm interviewing for a new job and I want to be able to speak with authority regarding the viability of using it. Beyond the fact that MS isn't updating it anymore, is there any reason not to recommend it? The only other alternative is MVC, but I'm much more comfortable with Silverlight.
".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
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You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
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When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013HTML5 and javascript have replaced Silverlight as a cross-browser cross-platform web solution. I was actively involved in its development (as much as I could be) until it was killed off. No more cross-browser plugin technologies, didn't work on mobile devices already, etc. were main reasons, so I wouldn't recommend it there.
Mark Salsbery :java:
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What is the current status of Silverlight in the Microsoft technology stack? The last time I used Silverlight was 2010 or so, and I'm aware that v5 was the last major release made. I'm interviewing for a new job and I want to be able to speak with authority regarding the viability of using it. Beyond the fact that MS isn't updating it anymore, is there any reason not to recommend it? The only other alternative is MVC, but I'm much more comfortable with Silverlight.
".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
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You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
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When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013Silverlight evolved into Windows 8 and Windows Phone apps, but the main web plugin is dead on the water, so if this is a new development, I suggest you to use something else.
CEO at: - Rafaga Systems - Para Facturas - Modern Components for the moment...
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What is the current status of Silverlight in the Microsoft technology stack? The last time I used Silverlight was 2010 or so, and I'm aware that v5 was the last major release made. I'm interviewing for a new job and I want to be able to speak with authority regarding the viability of using it. Beyond the fact that MS isn't updating it anymore, is there any reason not to recommend it? The only other alternative is MVC, but I'm much more comfortable with Silverlight.
".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
-----
You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
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When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013Don’t we need to install a plugin to use many high end Google services such as Google Hangouts? If JavaScript/HTML can eliminate plugins then this shouldn’t be the case. The power, efficiency and security a well-managed plugin is still unrivaled by any open web technology. The majority of current and future mobile devices are powerful enough to handle browsers that will run most plugins including Silverlight, if they wanted. What’s needed is a Silverlight version that’s compatible with the new Universal shared project type. This would finally unite the Microsoft ecosystem of Phone Apps, Store Apps, WPF(Desktop), and Silverlight(Web). LONG LIVE SILVERLIGHT!!!! My two cents. On a side note: I bet Microsoft makes boat loads of money through Azure with all these JavaScript websites constantly calling into azure webservers.