Worth learning Silverlight or is it on the way out?

irishdude11

Ive been reading some stuff lately saying that the end is nigh for flash and silverlight -

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/nov/09/adobe-flash-mobile-dead
http://www.readwriteweb.com/hack/2011/09/build-2011-what-is-winrt-and-i.php

I was planning to learn silverlight but now Im wondering if I should bother if this technology will have a very limited lifespan.

Colonel Panic

I would pass on it to be honest. The only gain you would get out of learning it is that XAML is used in WPF as well, and will be used a lot, albeit with native code in Windows 8.

irishdude11

Hmmm, now I see this blog post by some guy who until recently was Director of Product Management for Visual Studio and he is saying Silverlight is going nowhere and he has actually taken up a job as the Executive Vice President of Telerik (who make Silverlight/WPF controls) based on that belief.
http://dougseven.com/2011/09/14/i-know-what-youre-thinking-and-youre-wrong/

Really hard to know what to think with all the conflicting information.

web designer meath

Nah, I wouldn't say so. It's still very much 'in vogue'. Flash has been ruled out for years in the propaganda machine but it's still going strong. I'd say it's worth learning and whatever develops from it. Microsoft are there in the long haul so it's worth knowing.

tricky D

Silverlight has never got off the ground with developers. Its usage on websites is currently under 0.3% compared to Flash's usage running at the 50% mark. Given such a poor usage level ie. market pebetration, it is clearly not worth pursuing.

Creamy Goodness

speculation purely at the moment but... http://news.slashdot.org/story/11/11/09/1920247/microsoft-killing-silverlight

Doesn't seem worthwhile in any case.

onemorechance

HTML (5), CSS (3), JavaScript, AJAX, JSON, JavaScript libraries (JQuery) are more worth your time. All major browsers support these, well HTML < 5 and CSS < 3 anyway, and they do pretty much all that Flash or Silverlight can do.

Learning either of these now is not worth the effort I think; I don't think Silverlight was ever worth the effort! :pac:

Flash I would only learn if you wanted to do (interactive) animations and such things, but Flash is on the way out too.

HTML, CSS, JQuery and you are all set! :cool:

doopa

More from the register here:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/11/10/microsoft_killing_silverlight_rumours/

jimmycrackcorm

tricky D wrote: »

Silverlight has never got off the ground with developers. Its usage on websites is currently under 0.3% compared to Flash's usage running at the 50% mark. Given such a poor usage level ie. market pebetration, it is clearly not worth pursuing.

The primary market for Silverlight is in the Enterprise and not the consumer bar streaming video such as Netflix. The silverlight skillset will still be very valid and a core Microsoft Windows/Tablet/Phone development development mechanism but will transmorph to Jupiter and RT.

The problem with HTML5/JQuery et al is that they are still too basic in comparison for web based RIA development purposes although it is now clear that with the demise of Flash this should be the primary development platform in the future.

I wouldn't be surprised in the least if Microsoft were to announce that Expression Blend and Xaml generated underlying html5 and javascript .

StickyMcGinty

jimmycrackcorm wrote: »

I wouldn't be surprised in the least if Microsoft were to announce that Expression Blend and Xaml generated underlying html5 and javascript .

Spot on, i think it will go this way too same way that ASP.NET generates underlying HTML

Silverlight is going nowhere - WP7, Xbox Live TV etc all heavily rely on Silverlight tech.

p

Silverlight as a web technology is dead.

However, Silverlight/WPF as Desktop/Mobile platform I think may still have some legs. You can develop in Silverlight (or Silverlight-like) stuff on most of Microsoft's platforms. Windows 8, Windows Phone 7, Xbox, so if you're interested in Microsoft and C# etc... it may be fine, just not for web.
http://www.engadget.com/2011/10/10/microsoft-reportedly-preparing-silverlight-like-app-framework-ah/

Odaise Gaelach

From experience, I spend a year developing in C# and ASP.NET when I was in college. When it came to writing apps for Windows Phone 7 and Silverlight, and software using Windows Forms, I found that a lot of it is very similar.

It depends on what you want to do with it. For websites, you're probably better off learning HTML5 instead of Silverlight. But for Windows Phone 7 or Metro apps in Windows 8, Silverlight is still a very good choice.