Microsoft has launched Silverlight 3, its rich Internet application technology competitor to Adobe Flash. The new version of the application includes increased support and new features such as enhanced video performance. It will be just one product demonstrated at Microsofts Worldwide Partner Conference in New Orleans July 13-16, along with Windows 7, Microsoft Office 2010 and Windows Server 2008.Microsoft
has launched Silverlight 3, the newest version of its rich Internet application
(RIA) technology, meant to challenge Adobe on its own Flash-centric turf.
The release comes on the eve of the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference,
scheduled to start July 13 in New Orleans.
In addition to a high-powered lineup of speakers including Microsoft CEO
Steve Ballmer and former General Electric CEO
Jack Welch, Microsoft is also slated to demonstrate a number of upcoming
flagship products, including Windows 7, Windows Server 2008, Microsoft Office
2010 and Windows Mobile 6.5.
Originally announced in March 2009 at Microsofts MIX09 event, the
application has been in beta for the past few months. The newest iteration of
Silverlight includes over 50 new features, ranging from enhanced video
performance and improved quality to support for Visual Studio, Expression Blend
and running Silverlight applications from the browser.
Browser-wise, Silverlight 3 supports the latest browser iterations,
including Internet Explorer 8 and Firefox 3.5, as well as GPU hardware
acceleration.
In addition to the application, which
can be found here, Microsoft has also issued Silverlight 3s software
development kit (SDK), which can be downloaded from this
site.
Silverlight 3 is paired with Expression Studio 3, a design tool that
incorporates a rapid prototyping capability, design time sample data for
testing applications without access to live data, and direct import of Adobe
Photoshop and Illustrator files. The tool also includes a full code editor with
C#, VB and XAML support.
Microsoft has long promoted Silverlight as an alternative to Adobe Flash,
claiming in the past that one in every four computers runs a version of it.
Adobe, by contrast, has claimed that some 95 percent of PCs have adopted Flash.