Silverlight or HTML5?

[TSE]

What's the future? From what I know, it seems like Silverlight is a little more flexible but takes a little bit more optimizing than HTML5.

I would be fine with either as long as it is an improvement over Flash. Flash is terrible, even on the Windows size.

 

[*LTD*]

HTML5.

With Google and Apple pushing it - and the industry (and networks) listening, it's the clear winner.

 

[Rodimus Prime]

What can HTML5 do besides video.

My understanding is Silverlight can do everything flash can and then some.

HTML5 can not do everything flash can and sure as hell can not do everything silverlight can.

 

[MisterMe]

...

HTML5 can not do everything flash can and sure as hell can not do everything silverlight can.

So not true. HTML5 is the proposed next standard for HTML 4.01, XHTML 1.0 and DOM Level 2 HTML. It aims to reduce the need for proprietary plug-in-based rich internet application (RIA) technologies such as Adobe Flash, Microsoft Silverlight, Apache Pivot, and Sun JavaFX.

 

[yoyo5280]

HTML5 only because it will be adopted faster.

 

[KnightWRX]

What can HTML5 do besides video.

My understanding is Silverlight can do everything flash can and then some.

HTML5 can not do everything flash can and sure as hell can not do everything silverlight can.

You assume HTML5 is just the video tag. You are horribly wrong. HTML5 is far from being complete and new parts will be introduced in the future. Right now, video, audio and canvas specifications are complete or close to complete.

Read up on it before making uninformed claims.

 

[kdarling]

The real life "winner" will depend on the usual two important deciding points:

1. How widespread the browser support or player is.
2. How good the development tools are, especially for artist types.

At this point, Flash is hugely ahead for both. Silverlight has great potential as well. HTML5 currently lacks both the widespread support and tools.

 

[*LTD*]

The real life "winner" will depend on the usual two important deciding points:

1. How widespread the browser support or player is.
2. How good the development tools are, especially for artist types.

At this point, Flash is hugely ahead for both. Silverlight has great potential as well. HTML5 currently lacks both the widespread support and tools.

The question of HTML5 vs. Flash is the dominant one in the format wars. Not HTML5 vs Flash vs. Silverlight.

The industry is deciding between Flash and HTML5. Silverlight is not even under consideration. Why? Because Apple and Google are pushing HTML5 and when Steve Jobs opened his mouth HTML5 came rolling out of it.

It's just that simple. it's not only about the *current* potential of each format, which could change quite quickly with development - in fact, in this sense, we can consider all formats equal. It comes down to 1) Who is promoting the format and 2) how aggressively they are promoting it. Google and Apple are aggressively promoting HTML5 and making the industry and networks listen, and we're seeing the effects of that: a gradual (and in some cases sudden, if incomplete) move to HTML5. Not Silverlight. It's as if Silverlight isn't even on the agenda. Who is promoting Silverlight? The obvious answer would be Microsoft, but their actions hardly rise to the level of active, vocal promotion.

It's as if it's all the same to MS whether we use Flash or Silverlight or anything else. MS has been apathetic about Silverlight marketing and promotion. Google and Apple have accomplished in a matter of months what MS has barely gotten to over the course of three years.

 

[mkrishnan]

The most impressive thing I've seen about Silverlight (purely in the domain of streaming video) is how well it handles caching / pre-loading of video, and quality determination. There's a lot less stutter or hang-up -- in fact it happens very rarely -- for me with Silverlight on Netflix than with Flash. The few times I've tried HTML5 video, at this point, it's even worse than Flash for not adequately caching, although I would think that's fixable.

 

[roadbloc]

The most impressive thing I've seen about Silverlight (purely in the domain of streaming video) is how well it handles caching / pre-loading of video, and quality determination. There's a lot less stutter or hang-up -- in fact it happens very rarely -- for me with Silverlight on Netflix than with Flash. The few times I've tried HTML5 video, at this point, it's even worse than Flash for not adequately caching, although I would think that's fixable.

Agreed. I tried using HTML5 in YouTube and it was terrible. But I have never had a flash problem on my mac tbh.

But, for me, personally, silverlight wins. However I think HTML5 has a early head start which may result in it being used more.

 

[str1f3]

Agreed. I tried using HTML5 in YouTube and it was terrible. But I have never had a flash problem on my mac tbh.

But, for me, personally, silverlight wins. However I think HTML5 has a early head start which may result in it being used more.

Silverlight works really well on the Mac and far better than Flash but it may run into the same problems as Adobe. What if Silverlight becomes the choice for streaming content? Does MS let the Mac side lag like to push users to Windows as MS has done before?

As of right now, I don't think that Silverlight is offered to Linux users so they'll be shut out. The best solution for the web is an open standard that they know evryone is capable of using.

 

[Eraserhead]

As of right now, I don't think that Silverlight is offered to Linux users so they'll be shut out.

Actually it is:

http://www.mono-project.com/Moonlight

 

[thejadedmonkey]

Silverlight. HTML5 doesn't have widespread support, or even set standards yet.Silverlight is for making right web applications, such as the next youtube site. HTML5 is more HTML, which, while not as flexible or easy to use, doesn't even have set specifications.

Realistically, if you're making a production website, you should be choosing between Flash and HTML 4.1

 

[ravenvii]

Actually it is:

http://www.mono-project.com/Moonlight

Officially.

 

[Eraserhead]

Officially.

Microsoft works with the Moonlight project...

In September of 2007, Microsoft and Novell announced a technical collaboration that includes access to Microsoft's test suites for Silverlight and the distribution of a Media Pack for Linux users that will contain licensed media codecs for video and audio.

 

[KnightWRX]

Actually it is:

http://www.mono-project.com/Moonlight

No it's not. Moonlight is very much behind the curve and is always going to be playing catch up. They are a version or 2 behind depending on which features you look into.

Moonlight is only there so Microsoft can try to claim Silverlight is not some cheap proprietary solution to an nonexistent problem.

Same with Mono vs .NET.

Silverlight. HTML5 doesn't have widespread support, or even set standards yet.Silverlight is for making right web applications, such as the next youtube site. HTML5 is more HTML, which, while not as flexible or easy to use, doesn't even have set specifications.

Realistically, if you're making a production website, you should be choosing between Flash and HTML 4.1

The HTML5 standard is going to come in small sections. So instead of waiting for the entire thing, we'll get some portions as they work on it. And yes it does it have a set specification, it's just not done yet :

http://dev.w3.org/html5/spec/Overview.html

The video, audio and canvas tags are pretty much set though.

What's a "right" web application anyhow ? Silverlight is proprietary technology meant to lock you into Microsoft approved platforms. Like ActiveX before it. Stay away if you know what's good for the web (which if you are pushing Silverlight, you obviously don't).

 

[MorphingDragon]

No it's not. Moonlight is very much behind the curve and is always going to be playing catch up. They are a version or 2 behind depending on which features you look into.

Moonlight is only there so Microsoft can try to claim Silverlight is not some cheap proprietary solution to an nonexistent problem.

Same with Mono vs .NET.



The HTML5 standard is going to come in small sections. So instead of waiting for the entire thing, we'll get some portions as they work on it. And yes it does it have a set specification, it's just not done yet :

http://dev.w3.org/html5/spec/Overview.html

The video, audio and canvas tags are pretty much set though.

What's a "right" web application anyhow ? Silverlight is proprietary technology meant to lock you into Microsoft approved platforms. Like ActiveX before it. Stay away if you know what's good for the web (which if you are pushing Silverlight, you obviously don't).

Its novell doing most of the grunt work for moonlight anyway.

 

[Nermal]

What can HTML5 do besides video.

3D! Morphing cubes! There's plenty of "non-video" functionality in HTML 5.

 

[str1f3]

Well Brightcove has just announced that they're creating an HTML5 iPad specific video player so it doesn't look too good for Silverlight. A QuickTime version will be available for iPhone & Android devices. They also seem to hint at a long term move to HTML5.

http://techcrunch.com/2010/03/28/ipad-brightcove-videos-html5/

 

[*LTD*]

Silverlight was never really in contention. It's Flash vs. HTML5.

 

[mkrishnan]

3D! Morphing cubes! There's plenty of "non-video" functionality in HTML 5.

One might place a slight premium on useful non-video functionality.

 

[DakotaGuy]

Agreed. I tried using HTML5 in YouTube and it was terrible. But I have never had a flash problem on my mac tbh.

But, for me, personally, silverlight wins. However I think HTML5 has a early head start which may result in it being used more.

I tried the HTML5 Beta in YouTube and I switched back to Flash. It was terrible. Now I know it is only a beta so things will improve, but right now it is not impressive at all.

I don't see Silverlight as a main player only as an alternative choice. With that said, I have been very happy with Silverlight when I use Netflix.

 

[drummerlondonw3]

I tried the HTML5 Beta in YouTube and I switched back to Flash. It was terrible. Now I know it is only a beta so things will improve, but right now it is not impressive at all.

I don't see Silverlight as a main player only as an alternative choice. With that said, I have been very happy with Silverlight when I use Netflix.

well my experience of the youtube beta was great. TBH there are such obvious problems with flash playback anything to make it easier will be a bonus!

 

[dernhelm]

Microsoft works with the Moonlight project...

But it's way behind. A bit of the red headed step child.


We're using Silverlight to build a web application environment for medical imaging. The Silverlight video control needs some work but is servicable. The big bonus of Silverlight is that you get to leverage your .Net programming skills (if you have them) and a terrific development environment (VS 2008 and upcoming 2010 blows away most everything else) to build very rich Web-deployable applications.

Is it better than Javascript / AJAX / HTML5? It depends on what you want to do. There is a lot of overhead getting Silverlight running. Right now, we still see differences in running on Windows and Mac - so we cannot support the Mac as a supported deployment environment just yet. I'm sure we could had we had more available apple hardware in development and some time to make it work - it just isn't a priority for us - and it isn't free.

But it is a richer environment that Javascript. You are essentially programming in C# and .Net (or a subset of .Net anyway) and it is ridiculously easy to make a Web app that feels just like an installed app. But this is more of a Flash-like technology, and the temptation may be there to use Silverlight to do things that it isn't needed for, and then you are loading this heavy application environment (with it's dozens of .dlls) to do something that you could do in HTML5 with a video tag.

I understand that using HTML5 (combined with Javascript and libraries like jQuery) can also provide rich behavior (and I've used a bit of this as well) thus blurring the lines between HTML5 and Silverlight. The fact remains that it is a whole lot better to program rich front ends that communicate with SOA back end services and provide installed-app like look and feel in Silverlight or Flash than it is in HTML5. They both will continue to have their place.

 

[7on]

I think the real winner is Javascript. You can find many scripts to bring many css3/html5 features to browsers as old as IE6. Found a Jquery plugin just last week to bring text-shadow/box-shadow to any browser. Found one for rounded corners---but that didn't work well with non-absolute positioned boxes.