Bonum Certa Men Certa

Microsoft is Starting to Dump Silverlight (Phased Out of Microsoft Services)

Silverlight toilet



Summary: As further evidence of Silverlight abandonment we now have Microsoft removing its requirement in Bing Maps; the future of Windows is doubted in an age of an advanced Web

IT IS BEGINNING to be safer to say that, as much as Silverlight developers wish to suppress and deny the situation (some have gone past denial and are now in acceptance phase), the product is going away and its rather symbolic maintenance in Vista Phony 7 [sic] is a matter of necessity because Microsoft foolishly built a mobile platform on software which would die (Moonlight too becomes obsolete and we warned about it back in August). The subject has been discussed repeatedly in our IRC channels and it sure seems like many Web sites that put Silverlight content in them (XAML) will see it 'expire' as Silverlight will become inaccessible a few years down the line (no plug-in). Is Microsoft the safe bet for a business then? Of course not, Silverlight is just the latest example. We'll also discuss this in episode 2 of TechBytes.



Adding insult to injury, Microsoft is the latest to withdraw from Silverlight, even in its own Web sites (some of which continued using Flash due to Microsoft reluctance). Bing Maps is no longer Silverlight-only from now on:

Bing Maps dropping Silverlight for HTML5



[...]

Microsoft is in the process of turning the Titanic around. At last year’s PDC the shouted mantra was “Silverlight, Silverlight, Silverlight.” Following this year’s PDC the cry has been the exact opposite.

While Microsoft claims that they are merely ‘shifting’ the future of Silverlight and focusing more on HTML5 for cross-platform support, actions speak louder than words, and Bing Maps just made a call that is going to set the pace for the future of HTML5 across Microsoft’s internet teams.

[...]

To recap, the Active-X/3D change has nothing to do with Silverlight, our post was off the mark there and for that we apologize. However, Microsoft is still pulling the SL-exclusivity from Silverlight’s most important ‘hook’ in Bing Maps and letting people run it without Silverlight. Look into the future, what is going on is obvious.


As Microsoft is losing lock-in that's imposed via the World Wide Web, Windows will become less essential for access to material and Ray Ozzie too recognised this, as he explained shortly after he had left [1, 2]. "DWP CTO predicts the end of Windows" reports The Register this week. Read the explanation which begins as follows:

The Department for Work and Pensions' chief technology officer has said that the latest version of Microsoft Windows may be the last to be widely deployed.

James Gardner said that he believes that Windows will no longer be as largely needed because there will be "fewer workloads" that require a "heavy desktop stack".

"Today of course, we have all this legacy that's coupled to the desktop, but in a decade, I really doubt that will be the case. Most stuff will arrive via the browser," he said, in a post on his personal blog on 1 November 2010.

He added that it is possible that there will be "ubiquitous wireless networking everywhere, even those difficult places outreach workers sometimes have to go". This would remove the need for heavy-duty desktop software.


Silverlight is just another dead product in the making and as ~20 Microsoft projects/products per year die or get phased out/discontinued, Windows and Office too will have their judgment day. Unless Microsoft can grow, it will continue to diminish in market value and therefore become more fragile (or ripe for takeover/M&A by another company).

The format of Techrights is changing to account for changing priorities (including Fog Computing, Apple, and Oracle as threats). We kindly ask for patience while a transition is made.

Comments

Recent Techrights' Posts

Serial Sloppers Are Killing the Web (They Probably Don't Care, Either)
Slop is a disease on the Web
IBM's Debt Ballooned by 8.5 Billion Dollars in Just 3 Months!
Hallmark of a company in a state of disarray, trying to spend its way out of trouble
Big Trouble in GNOME
even GNOME people admit the CoC went wrong
New Article Explains How the GPL Came About and WordPress Having Copyleft Obligations
Having been involved in the WordPress development community since almost the beginning, I know why it chose the GPL and how it restricts abuse by Automattic
Dr Richard Stallman (RMS) Gives Talk in Oxford University in 4 Hours
If you live nearby, go there (it's free as in gratis)
 
Get Rid of Back Doors, Don't Obsess Over Bounties and Other Corporate PR Stunts (or Needless Reboot Rituals)
Security as a term has mostly lost its meaning due to repeated misuse for many years
Streaming Apps Are “Investor Fraud” That Kills the Planet
Reprinted with permission from Ryan Farmer
Things Get Increasingly Nasty at Microsoft Ahead of the Fake Results and May's Mass Layoffs Wave
They try to get people to 'resign' so that they won't count as layoffs and the company's 'wellbeing' will seem better
Slopping the Trough: Disney Plus Loses Billions and the Decline of Physical Media in America
Reprinted with permission from Ryan Farmer
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, April 24, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, April 24, 2025
Links 24/04/2025: GAFAM Problems and No Peace (or Ceasefire) in Sight
Links for the day
Slopfarms on the Web Almost Always Generate Anti-Linux FUD When They Produce "Linux" Output
Welcome to the dying Web
Richard Stallman's Oxford Talk Has Just Ended, Here Are Some Photos
he might hop over to another European country
Gemini Links 24/04/2025: Birthday and Good Work of Academia in Esotericism
Links for the day
Links 24/04/2025: EU fines Apple and Facebook, Another Microsoft GitHub Security Blunder
Links for the day
IBM Gained Almost 6 Billion Dollars in "Goodwill" Value in Just 3 Months, According to IBM
Congrats to the management!
In Belarus, Yandex is Now Measured as 50 Times More 'Popular' (by Usage) Than Microsoft
Yandex continues to gain, whereas Bing cannot even register at 1%. Last month it was registered or measured at a measly 0.65%.
IBM Cannot Lie to Shareholders Anymore
"I would not be surprised if we see a layoff every quarter this year."
Using a Law Firm's Licence to Exercise Politics Through Frivolous SLAPPs and Nastygrams (to Silence People, Remove Pages, Demand Fake or Forced 'Apologies')
Things must be getting really bad when lawyers act for raving antisemites
We're Working to Make Full-Site Search Available
This site has over 1,000 'wiki' pages, many thousands of documents, several thousands of videos, and about 50,000 blog posts or articles. We need to make them easier to find/navigate.
Links 24/04/2025: IBM Loses Many Contracts, Intel to Lay Off Over 20% (Not Counting Those Who Leave 'Voluntarily')
Links for the day
Richard Stallman Can Explain to Oxford Artificial Intelligence Society Why LLM Slop is Not Artificial Intelligence and Why It Hurts Society
another 'crop' of LLM slop that damages GNU/Linux and facts
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, April 23, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, April 23, 2025
Open Source Initiative (OSI) Promoting Microsoft and Proprietary Software Using Microsoft Operatives
Because nothing says "Open Source" like GPL violations facilitated by Microsoft
Another Site Bites the Dust: "Open Source For You" Becoming a Slopfarm (LLM Slop)
What a shame. Another dead site.
Links 23/04/2025: Crackdowns on Dissent, Palin Loses Libel Retrial Against New York Times
Links for the day
Links 23/04/2025: Hard Times and Digital Amnesia
Links for the day
The GNU/Linux Site Formerly Known as "linoxide.com" is Back... as an LLM Slopfarm!
Better for linoxide.com to go offline than to do this
Richard Stallman to Speak in Oxford University Exactly a Day From Now
outsourced to GAFAM
Links 23/04/2025: "Hiding Corruption" and "The Cost of Defunding Harvard"
Links for the day
Microsoft 'Studies' Again? Leon Musolff is Writing Papers With Microsoft.
Even if one can see/find a link to "the study" (in the Bezos-controlled publication), most people won't look any further and just take everything at face value.
Towards GNU World Domination
The FSF led by Geoffrey S. Knauth with his friend Richard Stallman in the FSF's Board [...] Let's encourage people to adopt GNU/Linux. There has never been a better time.
statCounter Helps Visualise Just How Deep in Trouble Microsoft is (Especially in Africa)
Microsoft sabotaged efforts to connect Africans and equip them with GNU/Linux laptops
The Register is Using Linux-Hostile Clickbait in Articles of Linux Proponents
Don't be a "whore" to advertisers, team El Reg
Microsoft Windows in Cyprus Lacking a Future
Most people access the Web there from mobile
Matrix Has a Severe Problem With Illegal Images
If Matrix cannot get the CP problem under control, many projects and people will dump Matrix
Never Try to Justify Strangulation of Women (Not in the US and Not in the UK)
Joint post by Mrs. Rianne Schestowitz and Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Links 23/04/2025: Tesla Profits Plunge 71%, Intel Ready to Lay Off 20% of Staff, Microsoft and IBM Layoffs
Links for the day
Microsoft's Most Profound Issue is That People Moved to 'Mobile' and "App Stores" (Microsoft's Presence There is Negligible)
Expect a wild ride for Microsoft this year
Google News is Amplifying FUD and Lies About Linux (and OpenSSH/SSH) by Promoting Slopfarms With Machine-Generated FUD and Slop Images
Google should know better
Gemini Links 23/04/2025: Librarians, Anubis, and Refactoring a Gemini Capsule
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, April 22, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, April 22, 2025