Macs are better than PC’s, Flex is better than Silverlight, Ajax is better than Flex, Steve Jobs has a better turtle neck than Bill Gates… Do you ever get fed up with all the Jingoistic mud flinging that goes on between developers? Have we really not grown up past the playground days of “My dads stronger than yours?”
I’m guilty… I know… If you read my, why silverlight is nailing Flex post, you'll realise that on occasion I hold a bias towards Microsoft products. Perhaps bias is an understatement; if Microsoft released a Zune phone I'd be more excited than Amy Winehouse would be to see a syringe.
Supporting or promoting your favorite technology is always a bit counter productive. I guess by spouting about how bad another companies product is, all I’m doing is pissing off the exact people I’m hoping will join in on the fun.
Therefore, I’m not going to tell you why I don't like Flex but give you 5 reasons I like Silverlight. I’d appreciate it if you could provide 5 reasons why you prefer the RIA environment you use, try not to repeat other posters comments.
- Developer support is Awesome. For Example Microsoft have paid Vertigo to build this open source YouTube style Video Hosting application to get developers up and running: http://codeplex.com/videoshow. (P.S. This application lets you host and stream 4gb of video for FREE using Windows Live Silverlight Streaming.
- Design is completely separate from Code. Developers can pass over the engine and designers can create the body by either opening up notepad and crunching XAML or by using Microsoft Expression. Designers can collaborate and without treading on each others toes.
- Ajax, JavaScript and Silverlight work together as one. The XAML on the page can be accessed directly from JavaScript in precisely the same way you would access any other Dom elements. This means you can have the best of both worlds. A really cool Ajax site that integrates seamlessly with Silverlight rich elements (My currently preferred use of silverlight)
- Adaptive streaming on video content, means that depending on the network speed the stream quality automatically adjusts. Meaning you don’t have to ask a user what bandwidth speed they have, the application is checking in real-time as the video is playing back. So if the network activity peaks Silverlight will reduce the feed quality to ensure playback is smooth and uninterrupted.
- You can use the same XAML code in both silverlight and WPF. Meaning experiences that you’ve created for vista applications can be cut and pasted into Silverlight.
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