Summary: RTL is adopting dead software and many people still suppose that Windows has long-term relevance

WHAT is going on at RTL? Given that Microsoft has pretty much announced the death of Silver Lie [sic] on the Web, why is this deprecated product being adopted at this stage? Did they not get the memo?

Recently RTL (a Dutch commercial television network) relaunched their website, moving entirely from classical Windows media to Microsoft Silverlight. On this site, you can not only play clips, but also watch their news reports and various other selections of their programs. Very handy and consequently quite popular. More so because with Firefox and a few additions you could watch it on almost every platform - or even every browser.

Silverlight, on the contrary, poses many problems. Few Linux users are able to play anything at all, even after installing the patent-infested Moonlight plugin.

It is even worse than that. Moon Lie -- like Silver Lie -- is hardly being developed anymore (more on that in a later post). RTL's development team must have been living under a rock if it does not understand this. A nearby blogger has just published "R.I.P Microsoft Windows?" This not only mentions Microsoft's vapourware [1, 2] which included Silver Lie back in the early days; it also argues that for many purposes Windows is becoming obsolete.

Microsoft is usually very good at presenting new products years ahead of the actual launch - but there continues to be a very remarkable absence of a single strategy for support of Windows applications or Windows as a well integrated desktop.

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Does this mean that Windows is dead? No, not in business, and not on the server. Some hardcore gamers and those that want "the same at home that they have at work" will still keep it, of course. But frankly, once Google Chrome OS is out, there isn't much advantage in buying a Windows PC, if you are an average consumer with no special preferences for specific software packages. Some may even just use a touch tablet with a keyboard.

Google uses some of its own vapourware tactics with Chrome OS right about now. Microsoft booster (and MVP) Jason Hiner [1, 2, 3, 4] addresses Google's claim that 60% of businesses could dump Windows for Chrome OS. It's too early to tell how successful Chrome OS will be, but the replacement for Windows on the desktop is coming; the question is, how locked down will it be? At the moment, Chrome OS is a restricted version of GNU/Linux, just like Android. ⬆