Over at mac mojo, the Microsoft Mac Business Unit blog, Blair Neumann is expressing his excitement about Silverlight. As we mentioned before, Silverlight is Microsoft's cross-platform, Flash alternative, which is now available in beta form for both Safari and Firefox. Perhaps the most interesting thing about this (as Eddie Hargreaves over at the Apple Blog points out) is that Silverlight will return official Microsoft support for Windows Media streaming to the Mac, "including HD video up to 720p." Since Microsoft stopped development of the Windows Media Player for Mac the primary Windows Media solution on the Mac has been from Flip4Mac (and indeed Microsoft is itself distributing the Flip4Mac plugin). Nonetheless, I still regularly run into problems trying to stream Windows Media videos, so this has to be taken as good news. Unfortunately, however, Microsoft is apparently not going to support PPC Macs in future releases of Silverlight (via Gruber).Silverlight is a free download from Microsoft.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
5-25-2007 @ 8:56AM
mmcmonster said...
How long before Microsoft sees that they no longer need Mac support and drop the platform again? What about desktop Linux support? Since Adobe makes a nice flash player for desktop Linux, Microsoft still has less platforms supported and less goodwill (based on past performance).
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5-25-2007 @ 9:51AM
wayne said...
This is good news, so now I can watch those cnn.com videos on my macbook?
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5-25-2007 @ 10:02AM
Ed said...
It relies on the website using Silverlight. It won't magicaly make your videos work (as I understand it). No real websites are going to switch from Flash (that hundreds of thousands of people develop for) to some beta software from Microsoft.
Its only advantage is better video quality, and that won't be hard for Adobe to equal.
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5-25-2007 @ 10:24AM
Johnny Thrash said...
I can appreciate the news... but quite frankly... I have no interest in Microsoft, their bully tactics, their "I wish I was an elitist" attitude or their products.
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5-25-2007 @ 10:29AM
Donkey said...
Re #3
Wayne, you already can watch CNN videos on your MacBook. Just install Flip4Mac and those videos will open up just fine.
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5-25-2007 @ 11:02AM
tylerjp said...
@Boner
Your two comments have dropped my IQ by 20 points just having read them. Thank you.
In future posts, please try to provide some value, humor, wit, or even insight. You are better than this, and if not...wow, good luck with that life thing.
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5-25-2007 @ 11:10AM
Thomas said...
Excuse me if I don't rush out and install this latest piece of "us too" beta crap from Microsoft which they'll drop in an instant once they decide that something else is the future or they just can't be bothered.
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5-25-2007 @ 11:29AM
Joe said...
@tylerjp - he's just a troll... if you feed them they keep coming back.
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5-25-2007 @ 11:33AM
tim said...
the first step to shutting this down is by NEVER downloading it.
then in 6 months when they see nobody has it installed, itll phase out like most other MS things.
unless of course they require it as a 'crucial update' in windows, then boast that 500 million copies have been downloaded...im looking at YOU, IE7
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5-25-2007 @ 12:08PM
Antonio said...
It looks more like it wants to be competition for iMovie, but who, in their right Mac mind, would ever use a Microsoft app instead of Apple's perfected software, on their Mac? Nobody, I think.
It's nothing like Flip4Mac. I'm sticking with Telestream for wmv streaming....there's a good chance MS will drop SL support for Macs like they did before with wmp.
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5-25-2007 @ 12:49PM
jonas said...
actually, silverlight is signiffically better than flash thanks to.. wait.. just read this and you'll understand why:
http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/04/30/silverlight-the-web-just-got-richer/
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5-25-2007 @ 12:53PM
Jason Martin said...
I'm still waiting for the plugin that allows me to play DRMed WMV videos on my Mac. I bought a couple of baseball games from MLB.com before I made "The Switch", and I haven't been able to watch them since.
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5-25-2007 @ 1:06PM
Gwydion said...
My god, reading some posts I'm ashamed of being an Macbook and Mini owner.
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5-25-2007 @ 1:07PM
Josh said...
I have tried on multiple occasions to download this from multiple Macs and the DMG is corrupt.
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5-25-2007 @ 2:24PM
artifex said...
I wish TUAW had one-click reporting of abusive comments. :)
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5-25-2007 @ 2:34PM
Christopher Price said...
I think you may still need Flip4Mac to stream all WMV video. Silverlight right now only streams WMV content when it exists inside of a Silverlight application (or embed, if you prefer).
I don't see the Silverlight plugin offering raw WMV embed support... Flip4Mac has an exclusivity agreement on that. Not that it's a big deal, folks just need to know that they need to install Silverlight and Flip4Mac.
Worse, try telling that to a new Mac buyer who doesn't have a clue about WMV or Silverlight.
- Christopher Price
http://www.phonenews.com
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5-25-2007 @ 2:40PM
Shunnabunich said...
Well hey, AIDS is free too, but you don't see me rushing out to "download" that. @1, 5, 14: Microsoft *will* drop Mac support, it's only a matter of time, but of course every Mac user do their part to speed along its trip to the grave by avoiding it like the plague. Sadly, 13's last statement is more than likely prophetic. @18: It's a sign. :) @19: Amen, brother.
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5-25-2007 @ 2:47PM
Shunnabunich said...
Ack, the troll got deleted while i was writing! Subtract from my quotes accordingly. :P
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5-25-2007 @ 11:37PM
cbragg said...
If this allows us Mac users to finally use Netflix streaming, then I'm in.
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5-28-2007 @ 1:55AM
TJ said...
The problem is they might support it early on then after a few years cease the support/updates leaving mac out.
Flash is not perfect but at least it has support for almost all the platform. And they try to update even if it takes a while.
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