| Squilliam said: The way I see it is this. Silverlight is a killer application in terms of streaming media, especially media that is paid for to TV's and other media devices like media enabled computers because it solves the one intolerable thing which is hitching and stuttering streams. Natal links into this because its not just a gaming interface, but its also a multimedia interface so look to TVs integrating the Natal interface by the end of next year. I've already seen a demo of one so this has likely already been set in motion. The streaming music service is just as important to this as it is to the Zune and Xbox 360/PC. ... |
Silverlight is a proprietary platform that basically allows building web-based rich client applications over the .Net virtual machine.
The smooth-streaming tech demoed a few weeks ago is a good trojan horse for its adoption, but it's silly confusing what is basically an application with a software platform. The Silverlight platform could be too heavy in requirements to be used in many mobile and lightweight devices, exactly like even the complete Flash environment was too much for the iPhone and a cut-down version was used as an ad-hoc application for YouTube playing.
My prevision is that alternative techniques of smooth-streaming will be proposed first in Flash and then based on simpler, neutral and open technologies to cannibalize this space (HTML 5 video and HTTP streaming future specifications, etc) just like HTML+CSS+AJAX did grow into a universal platform for web applications.
Going back to the OP, Windows 7 will be well received, especially in stark contrast with Vista's troubled launch. The great mistery is Azure imo.
