Disclaimer: My company does a lot of Silverlight consulting and training (among several other technologies including jQuery, ASP.NET and SharePoint) so I definitely have a stake in Silverlight.
Update: This post was written back before Silverlight 5 even had a release for the public to play with. Silverlight 5 will definitely have a release but I have no idea (a year later) if there will be a Silverlight 6 or not. My recommendation is not to bet the farm on Silverlight at this point. It'll still be around for years even if Silverlight 5 is the latest release so if you're already into a project that Silverlight fits well for then I wouldn't worry about it. If you're starting a brand new project then I wouldn't bet the farm on Silverlight until Microsoft officially says if there's going to be a next version or not. I'm hopeful that there will be, but know one knows as of today (11/9/2011).
I'm really happy Microsoft is embracing HTML 5 in IE9 as announced at PDC 2010. That's a good thing for every web developer out there even though I think we’re in for quite the x-browser battle in the near future. I went through that back in the Netscape 4/IE4 days and still fight it today (although jQuery makes things much more fun!) and can’t say I’m looking forward to the x-browser issues that will most certainly come up. I'm all for HTML 5 though and do agree it's the way forward for "true" x-browser and x-device applications. I think that initially (meaning 4+ years ago when the idea sprouted) Microsoft probably did see Silverlight as a player in cross platform application development. But, it's just not going to run on every device especially iOS devices which weren’t even around back at that time the concept for Silverlight was initially discussed - thus the focus on HTML 5 at PDC 2010 this past week and the now famous "shift". I also think that Microsoft wants IE9 to get the attention it deserves which is why there was such a huge focus on HTML 5 at PDC. I don’t have a problem with that at all since Silverlight has received a lot of the attention at various conferences over the past few years.
So is HTML 5 Ready?
I think if you’re locked into a specific browser that HTML 5 is ready for some types of applications. I don’t think it’s easy to make specific HTML 5 features work well across browsers though (or make them perform well) and I don’t think HTML 5 is ready for prime time when it comes to building enterprise Line of Business (LOB) applications. Enterprise apps are what my company specializes in and what I look at first and foremost when choosing a technology. Sure, if you’re building an application that requires some polished and interactive graphics, drawing features, animations, basic video/audio or you’re building an online game then HTML 5 definitely has some cool features (check out the Agent 008 Ball game from Pixel Labs for a nice example). But, even the W3C has come out with a statement about the current state of HTML 5 (click here for more info) that sheds some light on whether or not it’s ready for prime time.
Having said that, it’s obvious that perception rules reality now days which is why there’s so much HTML 5 hype floating around (and very few tools to help back up the hype). I used to play with SVG years ago when Adobe still supported their SVG plugin and am happy to see it in HTML 5 along with the canvas, media support and DOM enhancements. Having the ability to run off-line Web applications and interact with a client-side data store will also be welcome features. It’s just not ready for prime time yet in my opinion though for some types of web-based applications and many people seem to be ignoring that fact. To each their own though….it’s not for me to decide if company A should jump into HTML 5 or not. Do the research and decide for for yourself. If you’re interested in hearing what HTML 5 offers straight from the source rather than through Twitter or some other social network, then check out this W3C document comparing differences between HTML 4 and HTML 5 and keep in mind that the spec is still shooting for official approval next century (OK…in 2014). The complete HTML 5 spec can be found here. It’s in your best interest to research it if you’re a Web developer since it’s definitely the future of the Web.
What About Silverlight?
So is Silverlight dead or dying a slow death as a result of the focus on HTML 5? Come on now...talk about taking a comment and subsequent article and running with it in the wrong direction! The moon is made of cheese and the sky is also falling in case you didn't hear! People are too quick to hear something and assume it’s the gospel truth without researching the context or intent. For those who are confused about the whole situation, Silverlight will continue to be key in several areas especially when it comes to building enterprise Line of Business, rich media and Windows Phone 7 applications. While I agree the recent comments and articles over the past few days don’t promote a lot of confidence in Silverlight (especially if you’re a Silverlight developer or looking at it for an upcoming project…if you’re anti-Microsoft I’m sure you’re loving it :-)), I’m quite confident it’s not an accurate depiction of reality and that Microsoft will clarify the message real soon. It’s fun to speculate on things but don’t believe everything you hear on the Web. In this case the storm that’s built-up just isn’t real! Microsoft is heavily invested in Silverlight with many of their own applications using it and companies around the world are invested heavily in it as well (including some of my company’s clients). Even the PDC 2010 player and session selector is built using Silverlight.
What gets me the most is hearing people discounting Silverlight even before they’ve tried it out or researched what it offers. They’re not aware of the excellent data-binding engine and the reduction in code and productivity boost that goes with it, the killer set of tools that are available, the extreme flexibility over how controls render and react, how existing .NET coding skills can be applied to client app development, how those same skills can now be used to build robust mobile applications, how a variety of distributed data sources can easily be integrated, how x-browser issues go out the window, how smooth-streaming media and DRM are king in Silverlight, how a user can run an application directly from the desktop if they want - I could go on and on. All I’d say is unless you’ve actually tried Silverlight and built something with it, don’t discount the technology since to be blunt, that’s the lazy way of approaching things. While I’m a big jQuery and ASP.NET MVC fan and am really looking forward to the release of ASP.NET MVC 3 (among other technologies), I do feel that Silverlight is a great technology for data-centric enterprise LOB applications.
In Sum…
I’m truly excited about the potential of HTML 5 and plan to invest additional time and resources exploring it for different applications and training opportunities. I think that as browsers mature more and consistently support a common set of HTML 5 features it’ll be a great technology. I’ve always felt HTML and other web technologies were the only way to be truly x-browser, x-OS and x-device. Over time the tool support will evolve and it’ll be yet another option for building great applications. We’re already starting to see that now with some of the applications that have come out.
However, many people prefer to use apps instead of browser-based/HTML applications for some tasks. Look at how you use apps with iOS, Android, WP7 or apps you run on your desktop. That’s why the death of Silverlight is highly exaggerated. The framework has many benefits that just can’t be achieved with HTML 5 or web technologies in general (easily anyway) and works well when a rich client is needed or when you’re building apps for Windows Phone 7. If you’ve worked extensively with HTML/script technologies and also spent a lot of time building Silverlight applications it’s easy to see the need Silverlight fills (dare I say it has several “sweet spots”). If you haven’t worked with Silverlight it’s easy to discount it as evidenced on Twitter lately which I personally view as just plain ignorant and rather sheep-like (as in follow all the sheep off the cliff). Things are going to get even better in the near future with upcoming Silverlight features so I’m confident in saying that the future is bright for Silverlight (yeah…I just had to end things with a cheesy rhyme :-)).
For those interested in spending time learning about what Silverlight brings to the table check out the free Silverlight Firestarter event on December 2nd.