I noticed this nice comparison, where Silverlight is actually compared with its correct counterpart, the Flash Player, rather than Flex.
http://shoutat.blogspot.com/2007/08/microsoft-silverlight-vs.html
I don’t call it that accurate as it misinforms about some features of Flash, but it worth a look.
don’t forget to read my comments over there, and post yours if you like :)
// chall3ng3r //
Thanks for helping set the record straight. Very biased comparison.
=Ryan
[email protected]
glad to see your comment here Ryan :)
yea, its not that good. i am looking to do one myself as well. but as i have not really played with SL yet, so i don’t like to post anything from assumptions.
// chall3ng3r //
A very biased, worthless comparison… don’t link to crap like this, it makes your blog less valuable and only propels misinformation.
@Dirk: thanks for your comment here. SL is very new technology, and we have to wait for sometime to see how much potential it have.
i blogged about this post because it was the post i found which actually compares SL with correct competitor, Flash. before this i found some that were comparing SL with Flex, which i believe have nothing to compare.
// chall3ng3r //
I’ve gotten used to the blogs that try to inaccurately compare Flash to *whatever*. But I almost feel bad for developers who after reading such ‘comparisons’ would ditch Flash and go with Silverlight. They’re going to be sorely disappointed once they realize they were spoon fed nonsense.
I think you need to be a little more careful when you write about “Flash”. You mention that it’s finally a proper comparison of technologies, and that Flex isn’t a client-side technology – neither is Flash. Unless you mean the Flash Player. That’s different from Flash, which means what? The IDE, the player, the SWF format?
Comparing SilverLight to the Flash Player is a good comparison, yes. And just as SilverLight has a lot of options for development, so does the Flash Player. The Flash Player requires a SWF file with the correct bytecode – it doesn’t care how the SWF got that way. So talking about Flex is fine if someone talks about XAML or the FLA format, since the Flash IDE is not the only option.
@Steven: i agree with you, but you can’t stop people doing that. i’m Flash developer, and i just want to keep watching whats coming ahead. check these comparisons, and correct them by commenting there. so, in future we see better comparisons with everyone’s contribution.
@Derek: first, i call Flash Player just Flash, even in my daily Flash life. and i call Flash Authoring to development tool.
its not finally the proper comparison, its talk about the correct competetors.
yes, comparing MXML with XAML is fine, but its a fact that Flash can’t render MXML directly until it is compiled in swf, where SL can render XAML without first converting into some sort of bytecode. but here Flash gets a point, as swf is open standard, compressed swf files downloads in less time.
there’re whole lot of things which that comparison missed. Flash is quite mature in v9, and SL is in v1 beta, but we all know that SL learned all the basics from Flash :)
// chall3ng3r //
Worth linking something if it is fair, true and based o knowledge.
As we all know that comparision isn’t and therefore just throws more speculation and rumours in the air.
Yeah, true. SL is still too new, and developers who never used Flash before, when use SL for first time they think it’s the best thing.
i’m gathering some stuff to write a nice post about SL and Flash. not another comparison though :P
// chall3ng3r //
Not really a comparison… why because it’s not accurate. I am not going into it but an example is the flash is only timeline based. This is false, flash can do time and timeline based animation.
One thing to remember about these two techs is you have to remember who the developers are. MS is not known for interactive graphic rich applications, They are more the of a geek tool (VB,C# and so on). Consider where flash came from Graphics and Animation, This is what flash is meant to do and now you can write graphic rich web applications with it. I for one like the way flash works with it’s time lines… easy to understand coming from a designer. I can see where programmers would find SL cool but let’s face it programmers have no business messing with graphics! Trust I know I work with them. If it’s one thing I know is this, keep a programmer away from Photoshop.
Getting back to my point, SL is dead in the water, yeah it’s a nice little experiment on MS’s part but I am sure they will abandon this tech when it fails to catch on with the creative community.
Silverlight is more like FLASH than MICROSOFT.
Microsoft bought over companies to release expression series and Silverlight range ofproducts. And guys behind these technologies have solid reputation in animation/ graphic worlds.
So Silverlight will become a worthy competitor. ( I am more of Adobe/macromedia guy)
review is biased.Flash will very much support javascript .
I totally agree with user speculator experienced developer’s comment. Flash is amazing and we have developed mission critical application also. Flash has limitation too as all development tools. Developer should find how to achieve the milestone. We did some research on XML data passing with flash & SQL Server. The result was unbelievable. Flash for front end middle end was ASP.NET, data passing though XML. see this example
http://www.lk.iwmi.org/PPM/map3/ ( a testing web. some mistakes may be there) click on any country to receive project informations)
When you need to build an application you have to be confidence on tools you use to accomplish project deadline. Otherwise client will be in trouble and you will be experimenting and lots of pressure on your mind.
This is where you can trust flash with Actionscript ( lovely language that you can control many things) we have tested AS+ ASP.Net+SQL SERVER , AS +VB.Net+Oracle, AS+C# +SQL Server , with XML. result was so impressive.
Flash has more resources posted for your mission critical applications. In cas if you stuck somewhere there are thousand of expert that will be helping you.
I download silverlight and experimented. It is not bad. Good start from microsoft. But they are far far behind Flash. I hope they will improve it soon to compete the future client side development. My recommendation is for beginners to follow Flash and flex until Microsoft release strong silverlight.
Developing world has this idea of embarking new technology with out deeply exploring. But flash has lot of week points too.
Flash has no printing feature much. We have built an application where user has come with enabling printing options. I am writing about dynamic printing feature generated using a database. I observe flash is lack of it and when it print it print hidden object too. ( if anyone know how to deal with this please put a comment )
My final comment flash vs silver light is ,you can use both depend on your requirement. but if you are going to deal with mission critical application , select flash where it has more help and resources. Good luck !
Which one supports DRM functions? So that the rich media content can be protected?
Wonder how much they get fined if they include this in any Microsoft software release…LOL…Funny Keep trying other softwares other than microsoft…debialn gentoo…all have there place but microsoft is like Biff Henderson , sure bet ! Goo Windows!
That blog post that everyone is referring to no longer exists.
I think it depends on what you are looking at for the comparison. I took the angle from usability and restrictions of display, which in essance IS Flash vs silverlight because they ARE the medium of distribution. however i do agree that if it is the development environment that you are comparing or the laguages used, then you can not just use the global term “flash vs silverlight”
I have just finnished writing a paper titled “Flash Vs Silverlight: A usability evaluation” It is available here:
http://www.jamesmallorie.com/flashvssilverlight.html
Abstract:
This project explores specific usability issues relating to the Adobe Flash ® Player and the Microsoft ® Silverlight™ Player in the adoption of Rich Internet Applications. A critical usability research study was undertaken to formulate an evaluation framework. The findings of which, formed the basis of several structured experiments. The Adobe Flash Player and the Microsoft Silverlight Player were systematically tested against the framework, resulting in a thorough and comparative evaluation of current and future usability issues.
Let me know what you think, what would you have done differently?
I think it still all boils down to makre tshare. This chart about sums it up:
http://www.statowl.com/custom_ria_market_penetration.php
So i never installed Silverlight, but i got a remote control from Logitech and it installed Silverlight for me. Now one of the games i like to play a lot became instable and i see Youtube Movie in a splitscreen like copy, i’m like WTF?