First hand knowledge from friends of mine employed at MS that specifically tell me the who/what/why of things that happen at Microsoft.
You are right Silverlight is a defensive measure, but again that is only because someone else has already done it right (regardless of security). Because Flash has done it "right" they are responsible for a technology that has become an extremely prevalent part of the average consumers online experience. They are simply reacting to the prevelance of the technology, forget which company label it falls under, I promise you. I mean heck you could call it a nobody name like "Netscape." As long as the _technology_ was a perceived threat to them, in some way, they would be getting the monkeys to work cloning it in a heartbeat. Either way I think Silverlight is a good thing, because I think competition is a good thing. As long as they don't use their market dominance to shove it down IT administrators throats, because you guys have enough crap to deal with already. Microsoft is indeed responsible for the explosion of the scroll wheel but not the inventor or first to do it by any means. There were already two different companies making scroll wheel mice before Microsoft. Microsoft did however "invent" and patent the horizontal scroll wheel. That does not mean that Microsoft's market reach didn't help make the scroll wheel jjnprolific, but that again is them being good on business and borrowing on technology. Obviously I am sure Microsoft has invented a lot of things, a quick patent search would show that. But it is sad when you see companies as large as Microsoft and never having done half of what places like Xerox PARC did from a technology innovation perspective. And thus a subtle jab to my MS Research friend who trolls this list for ideas J Either way not picking on Microsoft, they are undoubtedly one of the most brilliant companies I will know of in my lifetime, but more for their business cunning than technology innovation. Which brings me to a question I love hearing answers for, what has been a recent technology that has had the most impact on you? Could be something that makes your IT job easier, or could be your car that parallel parks itself. -Marc Maiffret Freelance Security Consultant http://www.marcmaiffret.com From: Ken Schaefer [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Sunday, December 30, 2007 8:37 PM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: RE: Silverlight? Marc, Do you have any inside knowledge on this product? Or is this just your speculation? Having talked to a few people in the WT&P group, Silverlight started off as a defensive measure to ward off Adobe. When Macromedia owned Flash, no one at Microsoft really cared that much about it. Now that Adobe owns it, people felt that Microsoft couldn't stand still. Nothing to do with waiting for someone else to make it successful and then copying it. More to do with "we can't sit buy and have no response" As for innovation - I'm sure Microsoft was the first vendor to put a scroll wheel on a mouse. I think everyone has them these days. I'm sure they've done a few other things during their time as well. Cheers Ken From: Marc Maiffret [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Sunday, 30 December 2007 9:21 AM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: RE: Silverlight? This is the Microsoft MO and has been for years. They have never innovated anything in the history of their existence. Well, Microsoft Bob maybe, hah. Wait for someone else to succeed in doing it right, copy them and use monopolistic business practices to crush them. There are a million examples but you already know them all. Things are changing however, Microsoft's, wait, bait, obliterate, strategy plan is losing legs against companies like Google. Mostly because the world consumers are being less dependent on the operating system and more dependent on the services the internet provides as a platform. But even there Microsoft is trying their damndest to clone everything that Google and the likes are doing. -Marc Maiffret Freelance Security Consultant http://www.marcmaiffret.com From: Carl Houseman [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, December 27, 2007 2:56 PM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: RE: Silverlight? Just what the world needs - a new VHS vs. Beta war. How many of these crusades (challenging the estabilshed leader in web/Internet technology) have been outright winners for MS since Internet Explorer? Will they ever learn? The effort and investment would be better spent on moving the technology to an open standard. Carl _____ From: Michael B. Smith [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, December 27, 2007 3:39 PM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: RE: Silverlight? Well, I think that Flash is "evil". Silverlight actually can do some things that Flash can't and from a development perspective is much easier to use. I'm certain that Flash can do things that Silverlight can't. Regards, Michael B. Smith MCSE/Exchange MVP http://TheEssentialExchange.com From: Micheal Espinola Jr [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, December 27, 2007 2:31 PM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: Re: Silverlight? Glad to have another attack vector integrated into your browser that does the same thing as another well-established product? No thanks - I'll pass (for now). On Dec 27, 2007 2:20 PM, Rod Trent < [EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: If you've messed with it at all from a development standpoint, you really like it. If you've watched the news, there are a lot of sites already on board with it. Personally, I'm glad to see something else besides Flash come out. Now, if we could just rid ourselves of this PDF stuff. ~ Upgrade to Next Generation Antispam/Antivirus with Ninja! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbelt-software.com/SunbeltMessagingNinja.cfm> ~
