Build Windows - with or without Silverlight?
Posted: 07 June 2011
Microsoft isn't making their developer message any clearer with their newly announced Build Windows conference
taking place on September 13, 2011.
Last week, Steven Sinofsky of Microsoft previewed Windows 8. The main developer message out of the preview is that developers would write Windows 8 apps with HTML and JavaScript (HTML&J). This message was either a mistake, bad PR and marketing planning, or a sign of the death of Silverlight. Either Silverlight was accidentally forgotten in the message or deliberately left out. I really have a hard time believing that HTML&J will be the main technologies used to deliver software on Windows 8. They aren't "native" technologies, and the richest apps are developed using native tech like the .NET CLR. Regardless of what the truth will be about Windows 8 app development, Silverlight developers (not including me) across the world are re-considering their careers right now. Over the past year (the MIX11 conference most recently) there have been a lot of doubts and shadows cast over Silverlight and its future.
The Build Windows conference makes Silverlight's future even murkier:
Hear how the UI was designed to work seamlessly with a diversity of devices and form factors. Go behind the scenes and learn all about the new app model that allows you to create powerful new apps. All while retaining the ability to use your existing apps. Web-connected and web-powered apps built using HTML5 and JavaScript have access to the power of the PC. Touch-optimized browsing, with the full power of hardware-accelerated Internet Explorer 10 transforms your experiences with the web. BUILD is the first place to dive deep into the future of Windows.
Yes, I get that there is something about HTML&J "having access to the power of the PC", but I'm not sold on that. At MIX11, all we really saw of that was integration with the Windows 7 taskbar. A lot can happen in six months though. Maybe HTML&J will really be that cool on Windows 8. I remain a skeptic. In any case, with the announcement of Build Windows, Silverlight looks like it is a crying, lost child in the store because it can't find daddy Microsoft. The question is whether daddy has started the car and driven off yet or if he'll come running back in to the store.
...I think daddy is walking very slowly back in to the store.
UPDATE: I just came across this post on "Jupiter", Microsoft's next XAML-based UI platform for Windows 8: More on Microsoft 'Jupiter' and what it means for Windows 8. Yes, it appears that daddy is coming back in to the store... slowly. It looks like Microsoft's neglect of Silverlight has been more about bad PR and marketing timing than anything else. Maybe they have a good reason to keep the tech a secret right now, but they're doing it at the expense of their developer base's confidence in their own tools while hyping HTML&J.