Although Microsoft's Silverlight was originally conceived as a competitor to
Adobe Flash, it now finds itself competing with Abobe's Web 2.0 platform,
Adobe Air. The harsh truth is, Microsoft Silverlight has already fallen
considerably behind Adobe Air. In typically Microsoft style, the software
giant's surely missed the boat, by aiming at a replacement for Adobe Flash
when the web world was already shifting towards interactive Web 2.0 platforms
such as Adobe Air. Microsoft Silverlight is a lightweight plugin that allows
you to watch Silverlight-based content in your browser. It works with most
major browsers, including Firefox and Safari. There is no prompt to restart
the browser after installation but I recommend you do so because the first
site of Silverlight content I accessed after installation simply crashed the
browser. The most important improvements to the latest version are smoother
streaming, DRM management, and an out-of browser player. The out-of browser
player, however, is dependent on developers embracing it and as yet, there
are few examples available. The smooth streaming feature will iron out many
of the streaming programs that have plagued Microsoft Silverlight in the
past. If your bandwidth drops below 3Mbps, smooth streaming will kick-in so
that your video isn't affected. Microsoft Silverlight can stream high
resolution video well and supports HD-quality videos. If you want to create
content for Silverlight, you'll need Expression Studio and Visual Studio. In
fact, this latest release is is of particular interest to developers because
it adds 60 customizable controls, new layout containers, 'deep linking' for
page bookmarking, search engine optimization, and enhanced data support. The
signs are though that Microsoft has realized that the battle for web content
is already being won by the much slicker and more stable Adobe Air platform
and is therefore aiming Microsoft Silverlight at business users. The
Silverlight homepage boasts 'Learn how Silverlight is right for your
business', and that companies such as Continental Airlines have adopted
Silverlight for use in their reservation system, showing that Microsoft knows
which side its bread is buttered on. Silverlight has probably missed the boat
as far as Web 2.0 goes, although there's probably no way you can avoid it
since there will always be some websites that opt to stream content with
Silverlight rather than Flash.Download *Microsoft Silverlight 5.1.10411.0* in
Softonic
