1. Bring this topic back to life.
2. Want to know what round of the fight we’re at and who’s winning coz I’ve been busy watching other fights.

Anyway, can I just add my two pennies….I could care less about Silverlight or Flash….until Silverlight forced me to install it with some download. OK…just for that…I don’t like it….my little user brain started to hurt….I was perfectly happy to give it a “chance” but it’s like Microsoft wants me to hate them.

But just to answer ickydime on his point about the 90% market share…..yeah sure….you had IBM….what about Netscape, Alta Vista, Yahoo…there are probably companies out there who have a measely 50% market share and they’re dead and they don’t know even know it yet.

So Marketing department, wake up and learn from marketing history…

Tip 1: Don’t start a war on 2 fronts unless you have overwhelming cash.
Tip 2: Crush your opposition before it learns to walk.

There. I’m done.

DL

PS: Oh yeah, I’m sure the technology is great. Bla bla whatever.

I also saw that Reuters article, and after just reading your blog I had to smile - I was that developer slapping his head and slowly drawing both my hands down across my face. You got it spot on.

It’s not that either of these platforms will kill the other, I like the competition, I hope it just up’s the specs for us. My problem, as you so rightly pointed out, is as a developer I want to be working on the strongest platform from a specification and implementation point of view, where as the clients who call are all about the perception and the buzz words.

At the end of the day, as developers we give our advice, but often it’s not welcomed. After all the people holding the cheque book didn’t get to told it by admitting they know f all. So more often than not we end up doing as requested rather than what we know to be best.

lol, that was a bit of a ramble, but hay it early in the day here.

cheers
glenn

However, I do have to note that I was impressed and disappointed that the Democratic National Convention was totally streamed in Silverlight. Impressed because the presentation was flawless. Disappointed because I would have thought Adobe and the Flash Platform would have been all over that event. It will be interesting to see which technology the Republicans choose next week for their shindig.

whilst I appreciate you offering a comment,everyone would benefit from you qualifying your statement. Genuinely. If Silverlight really does kick Flash’s ass then tell everyone how.

1. I do not agree with your analogy since Flash is already established. High 90% of users have it. Working towards its 10th iteration.
- 1. Once upon a time everyone bought IBM PCs

2. Silverlight is just a wee baby. I am sure it will gain marketshare, but it will need more than marketing to overthrow Adobe.
- 2 I wasn’t making the point that Siverlight was mature, I was simply saying it doesn’t even matter how well the software works if you market it correctly. As I said, look at Windows itself. In most respects there are many better OSs, but none are marketed as massively. If you don’t believe that marketing / propaganda work to the exclusion of all other evidence to the contrary then clearly you still believe that Saddam had WMDs

3. The purse holders as you mentioned don’t care what technology is being used, they just want the end result. No client has told the production house I work at which software to use for any of our work. It would be similar to me ordering a painting and telling the artist which brush to use.
- 3 this is a poor analogy. This is nothing like telling an artist what brush to use, not least because artists are more driven by integrity than capitalism.
As you work for a production house, the general level of technical exposure is very high as that’s what your company does. So once again, this is a poor example. None the less, developers and designers are susceptible to seeing “the emporor’s new clothes” when exposed to such marketing and the push often comes from that direction to.

4. The only way we are changing is if one tool offers something that the other does not. And in that case, I say let the best company win.
- 4 Once again, see Windows OS. It wasn’t even as good as the OS it was stolen from. You are not seriously telling me that you believe that the best company always wins?

Anyways, here were my points:

1. I do not agree with your analogy since Flash is already established. High 90% of users have it. Working towards its 10th iteration.
2. Silverlight is just a wee baby. I am sure it will gain marketshare, but it will need more than marketing to overthrow Adobe.
3. The purse holders as you mentioned don’t care what technology is being used, they just want the end result. No client has told the production house I work at which software to use for any of our work. It would be similar to me ordering a painting and telling the artist which brush to use.
4. The only way we are changing is if one tool offers something that the other does not. And in that case, I say let the best company win.