Silverlight 3.0 Released, Allows Apps Outside the Browser 335
Many different sources are reporting that Microsoft has unleashed the third major version of Silverlight to the masses. With 3.0 we see things like better 3D graphics support, the ability to offload tasks to a GPU, and the ability to run apps outside of the browser. "Silverlight's video capabilities have always been impressive when compared to Flash, and the new version boasts some new features that should keep the competition with Flash hot. It uses a media broadcasting technology Microsoft calls Smooth Streaming, an adaptive technology for playing the same H.264 video stream at the highest bitrate the device and its bandwidth limitations will allow. So if you've got a fast computer with an HD monitor and a wide open pipe, you'll see super high quality video at up to full 1080p HD. If you've got a dinky smartphone with mid-level data service, you'll see a constrained version of the same video."
Ogg was supposed to do this (Score:4, Informative)
They called it bitrate peeling.
Re:Security problems with a MS product? nah. (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Security problems with a MS product? nah. (Score:3, Informative)
I think this is more like running the apps on your desktop when you doubleclick the icon, like Flash players can do already. It doesn't mean all Silverlight apps on websites or even on your computer suddenly gets access to all your files and stuff.
Re:Security problems with a MS product? nah. (Score:2, Informative)
Re:3D graphics support (Score:5, Informative)
It's not three-d graphics. It's layered two-d graphics with interesting transforms. You can make something look like it's flipping in or out, and you can do sprites, but you can't make a fully three-d game (that is, you can't rotate something around with bits sticking out).
Why not? Because this approach gets you a bunch of cool effects without the pain of real 3D programming.
(Disclaimer: I worked on silverlight)
Re:And where exactly is moonlight? (Score:4, Informative)
The Mac version of Silverlight only works on Intel Macs, where Flash works on both PPC and Intel.
"Works" is stretching things a little. PPC Flash was always painfully slow, even by Flash's usual miserable standards.
Google Chrome also won't support PPC users, and Apple is officially depreciating PowerPC support in its next OS release. Should we complain about that too?
I've still got a 12" Powerbook that I'll likely cling on to as long as it works -- it's easily the best laptop I've ever used. However, even I'll acknowledge that it's not practical for commercial software vendors to continually support old platforms.
Re:DirectX on WebApps? (Score:5, Informative)
The difference is that Silverlight code is CIL bytecode that runs inside a sandbox.
ActiveX was native code, and you only had two options: to trust or to not trust, but once you installed the code, the executable had as many rights on your system as any other application running with your user ID.
Silverlight (and Moonlight) come with a sandbox that limits what the code that you download can do, for instance, they do not get direct access to any of your files.
Re:3D graphics support (Score:5, Informative)
Or more accurately, Chrome OS will push HTML 5 apps, making Flash and MS Flash (Silverlight) obsolete.
Microsoft is already targeting Smooth Streaming as the trojan horse for pushing Silverlight (and already successfully managed to force anyone who wanted to watch the Olympics or the DNC last year to download Silverlight 2). However, Apple has done an end run around Microsoft by submitting very similar technology it calls HTTP Live Streaming to the IETF as a proposed standard, patterned after SHOUTcast/Icecast HTTP streaming of MP3 (basically upgrading Internet radio to Internet TV).
And while Microsoft dutifully tries to push Silverlight out as The Only Client of its Smooth Streaming, Apple already has shipped HTTP Live Streaming in iPhone 3.0 to its installed base of +40 million active mobile iPhone/iPod Touch users, with partners Akamai and big name MPEG transport stream encoder vendors. In contrast, Smooth Streaming is designed to tie streaming only to Microsoft's streamer, IIS, and Silverlight on the client (surprise!).
Any client that can play H.264/AAC audio/video from MPEG transport streams can play content targeted to the iPhone. You can serve it from any web server. You don't need to create an iPhone App to deliver content to the iPhone, it streams right from the web, right now. That means it will be easy for vendors such as Palm or Android to support streaming video targeted to the iPhone, despite having a much smaller installed base than the iPhone. And with the release of Snow Leopard, QuickTime X will stream HTTP Live Streaming from the desktop, and presumably, Apple TV.
This tears away the primary need for Flash or MS Flash (Silverlight), paving the way open for HTML 5 to push compliant browsers (FireFox, Opera, Safari, other WebKit browsers) into the forefront and leave a dwindling minority on IE 6/7/8 with Silverlight/Flash. Best, HTML 5 can provide fallback, offering HTTP Live Streaming as the first option, H.264 progressive download as a secondary, Ogg Theora for Wikipedia hosting videos that won't play on any mobile devices outside of the desktop PC, and Flash for the Neanderthals among us.
Apple launches HTTP Live Streaming standard in iPhone 3.0 [roughlydrafted.com] : with a timeline and history of Internet streaming and links to example sites.
Re:DirectX on WebApps? (Score:2, Informative)
Directshow = Video
DirectX = 3D Graphics
Silverlight uses its own video implementation, not Directshow.
They are not the same thing.
Re:Lets learn it all over again..... (Score:1, Informative)
The app still lives in the same security sandbox as it would when running in the browser - it cannot access files, registry, etc. It cannot even pop up windows.
Some actually argue against it and want to follow the Adobe Flex model instead - runs within browser with limited right, but once you install on the desktop, it's a regular app... I'd be more afraid of what Flex is exposing you to.
Re:H.264 licensing (Score:5, Informative)
Moonlight will have H.264, but we are working towards our first beta of Moonlight 2.0
Re:3D graphics support (Score:3, Informative)
here, Fixed that for you. /> element)
(please check html 5 draft spec concerning the <canvas