For now.
So Bob Muglia said HTML is the only true cross platform runtime. Well, no crap. What – is Silverlight going to jump through Apple’s business model hoops like a trained dog? From a governance and investment perspective it is stating the obvious to say that HTML offers a cross platform deployment story that Silverlight doesn’t. But just like Flash, Silverlight has some legs – certainly in terms of the developer toolchain. Its the user interface development environment for Microsoft’s bet-the-farm Windows Phone 7. HTML5 will be fantastic for video – once we sort out a bunch of issues around codecs and DRM.
Sure, technically Microsoft’s desktop development story is kind of messy – with WPF and Silverlight still in the mixer. But life is messy, frankly, and Microsoft has always set up internal competition models, with technologies slugging it out for dominance. But its record in backward and forward compatibility is pretty damned good…
