Comments on: Microsoft: 100 Million Silverlight Downloads in 4 Weeks

By: roosevelt

roosevelt — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 18:45:59 +0000

@Jason: I agree as well.

Yes, microsoft got a lot of downloads but in terms of popularity it is still behind ;)

By: Zak

Zak — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 18:10:47 +0000

@Jason: Right on! I agree 100%!

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 11:58:50 +0000

I have been ignoring silverlight also. However I might be moving to silverlight since Dreamweaver is not supporting ASP.Net anymore.

I am using Visual Studios for web development now. If VS 10 does include more Blend function, it will make it easier to start using silverlight. Just wish Microsoft would include Blend with it’s MSDN professional subscription.

As for Adobe, I still use Dreamweaver and fireworks for site layout design. I just think silverlight will be a smaller leap for me then flash, since it supports the .net languages.

By: fishball

fishball — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 03:35:46 +0000

My most awaited feature of Silverlight 3 is the business application framework (aka Alexandria). Which will make developement of line of business application more easier and faster.

By: roosevelt

roosevelt — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 00:42:55 +0000

I have been ignoring silverlight for a while now but it seems Silverlight is more efficient than flash in terms of streaming media.

By: Jason

Jason — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 00:32:25 +0000

The only reason Microsoft gets the number of downloads is because if you want to go to Microsoft to update your operating system, you get assaulted with a pop up ad which prompts you to download Silverlight.

Get a sneak peek at the new designs we’re testing for the Download Center home page and category pages. We’re using Microsoft Silverlight technology to spruce up the site and make it easier to discover and download Microsoft software. Please note that joining the beta requires the installation of Microsoft Silverlight.

People are coming to the site to find downloads. Microsoft says, “hey, we want to help you find updates easier – download this.” Well of course people are going to download it even if they don’t know what “this” is. In fact, it doesn’t even say what it is. They just say you need it.

Because of this, I don’t think 100 million downloads is any kind of estimation of Silverlight’s popularity. It only points to the effectiveness of their pop up to get people to download it. I’m sure Microsoft wanted to publish this kind of hype to make people think Silverlight is on the same level as Flash.

There’s little substance to this statistic, if you ask me. However, Microsoft has done a decent job with getting some exposure with their product.

By: antiquerze

antiquerze — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 22:49:36 +0000

It was time for someone to make some competition to Flash. I don’t really like monopolies. The con is that we have to download and update yet another plugin regularly… Oh well.

By: JdL

JdL — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 21:09:25 +0000

MLB? That’s weak.