You are pointing out another example where Microsoft developers have been highly critical of Microsoft. One of the loudest calls is for Microsoft to integrate Silverlight into MSIE so users don't need to download a separate plugin. Silverlight does not have the widespread penetration that the Flash plugin has, which is holding back that platform.
Microsoft's uncertain commitment to Silverlight is the biggest area of concern for many Microsoft developers at present. Some developers, development firms, and entire companies have abandoned Silverlight in the past couple months because one Microsoft manager gave a brief impression that they were not investing as much as they could into the platform. In response, Microsoft has been paying a heavy price to turn that perception around, by hosting free day long Silverlight conferences, writing numerous blog posts, giving advanced previews of new tools that use Silverlight, making their development road map public, etc. Developers definitely do care about a company showing commitment to the products they sell. Look no further than the Silverlight mess that is still unfolding. It certainly caused me to scale back my enthusiasm for the Silverlight platform. If someone is reading this and has no idea what the Silverlight controversy is, you can start with this blog post where Bob Muglia first tries to publicly address the developer backlash. http://team.silverlight.net/announcement/pdc-and-silverlight/ You could also Google http://www.google.com/search?q=silverlight+dead One of the most famous phrases in the history of marketing: "I'm not only the Hair Club President, but I'm also a client." Jonas Salk famously tested his new Polio vaccine on himself and his family to help assure a nervous public that it was safe. The "I use the product myself" method of persuasion/sales can be very effective in any industry. -Mike Chabot On Fri, Jan 28, 2011 at 1:42 AM, Dave Watts <dwa...@figleaf.com> wrote: > > > I disagree with the suggestion that the technologies major companies > decide > > to use is unimportant to developers. I am active in the Microsoft > developer > > and database communities and I can say with certainty that Microsoft > makes a > > big deal about how they use their own technologies to power their > company. > > Here's a handy Google search: > > filetype:swf site:microsoft.com > estimated results: 11,700 > > I wonder why that's not all Silverlight? > > Dave Watts, CTO, Fig Leaf Software > http://www.figleaf.com/ > http://training.figleaf.com/ > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/message.cfm/messageid:341614 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/unsubscribe.cfm
