Could MS Take the Shine Off Chrome?

Microsoft has no plans to support Silverlight on Chrome - at least according to a post by Yi-Lun Luo on the Silverlight forums:

"Hello, currently we don't have plans to support Chrome. We will support it in the future if it gains enough market share. Please understand, each browser implements the plug-in model differently, so it'll be a lot of effort to officially support a browser 100%."

It would take the shine off Chrome if the new browser (intended for rich web apps!) couldn't run Silverlight.  All kinds of speculative scenarios take off from there:

  • Chrome adds routines to emulate FireFox just enough to trick the Silverlight plugin into running
  • Google produces its own Silverlight clone (Twilight from Moonlight?), leaving Silverlight on the sidelines
  • Google just sticks with pure JavaScript apps, cranks up the tooling support to make the platform compelling, and ignores Silverlight. All this to the glee of Microsoft-bashers

Chrome has gained a lot of fans in very few days. My view is that Microsoft will have no choice but to offer Silverlight for Chrome on Windows - and probably has a team looking at it already.

Published 04 September 2008 11:30 AM by Ken Cox [MVP]
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Comments

# AndrewSeven said on 04 September, 2008 11:37 AM

If they support Silverlight for Safari, there is a good chance that most of the WebKit based stuff will also work.

# funny wallpaper » Could MS Take the Shine Off Chrome? said on 04 September, 2008 11:55 AM

Pingback from  funny wallpaper » Could MS Take the Shine Off Chrome?

# Dave said on 04 September, 2008 12:33 PM

As I see it, Silverlight is a compelling choice inside your firewall where IE rules. Don't see how its really useful outside the firewall if people can't choose their browser.

# clanaota said on 04 September, 2008 12:44 PM

I think that would further dissuade people from using silverlight. Silverlight already partially works on chrome (some sites work, some don't).

Microsofts approach here should be "If flash works on it, so should silverlight"

# Ben said on 04 September, 2008 12:52 PM

This is why people hate Microsoft so much.  Flash works perfectly already!!! (At least all the flash I've tried.)

In the name of competition, Microsoft's motto really is "be as evil as possible".

Sheesh!!

# John said on 04 September, 2008 01:17 PM

@ Ben:  If we want to get into a good and evil debate we can discuss Google's decision to bend to the Chinese government (with every other company doing business there).  If you can condone that and still say they're not doing evil then you're playing favorites.  Personally, these conversations are often along the lines of politics or religion and are discussed with more emotion than reason.

@ Clanaota:  I totally agree, if you're going to compete with Flash you need to compete wherever Flash does.  Different strategies on different products someone have conflicting interests and I believe that's what we're seeing here.

# Peter said on 04 September, 2008 02:08 PM

I agree with clanaota; I found myself avoiding SL sites with Chrome. Channel9 for example -- it has to be a good video for me to fire up IE to watch it. Only MS loses in not supporting SL in Chrome. It also adds to the list of browsers SL doesn't work in.

# junior said on 04 September, 2008 02:49 PM

@Ben. Flash works b/c Google ensured it so at least people can visit their own Youtube in Chrome dummy. Get a brain.

# Nullable said on 04 September, 2008 05:48 PM

Chrome doesn't even currently support Java... which is why I'm not using it anymore (can't play Chess on pogo.com :P)

Also, it's a beta... it would be pretty stupid to devote a team to work on porting SL to it when it's far... far from complete.

# Roman Nikitin [MVP] said on 04 September, 2008 06:11 PM

Hmmm...

But Chrome already support Silverlight 2.0, Flash 9.0 and latest Java.

Because it is based on WebKit engine.

# kamii47 said on 05 September, 2008 12:56 AM

Agreed with Peter and clanaota

# John said on 05 September, 2008 07:53 AM

The whole point of silverlight (to me) is to abstract the browser.  I could not care less what Google do as long as Silverlight sits nicely inside the tabbed rectangle of screen they give me.  Technologies like Silverlight and Flash raise the bar above javascript and html.  Forget the browser, support the abstraction.

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