Silverlight Vs HTML5 : You and Me

In India, we every year celebrate “Diwali” festival which is festival of Light which helps to find path, Its win over dark and all good days to start new things. I am celebrating Diwali festival with my parents in our new home, So I will blog our Tech stuff on Silverlight and WP7 very soon once the festival is over.

However, I am suffering from mild frustration from last week, The Day PDC 2010 Keynote got away, You all know what fiasco and discussions happening all over internet for Silverlight and HTML 5.I am not HTML 5 Guru and neither I am against of any technology.You all know I never write such articles and philosophical stuff which is infinite. I always do tech stuff,but this time pain is so much and so much I suffer in last week, I cannot help myself so I am kind of sharing this with you.Who better can talk on this-a Silverlight MVP.

This blogpost is for those people who just chosen “Silverlight” as platform and new to Silverlight and now victim of this endless fight of Silverlight Vs HTML 5.Idea behind this post is not to pat on back or praise any technology or company.Also I am not interested to put so many Hyperlinks in this post about who saying what on Silverlight Vs HTML 5. I know shit is all over and I don’t need to put it here.

History :

At Microsoft, There is a product “Silverlight” which created wonders in Rich Internet Applications arena around the world from last few years.Despite there were so many other parallel products already in market like Flash, JavaFx etc. Slowly over the period of time it got stable up with decent amount of features which one can imagine and its now a trend.

Cross browser – Cross platform,Rich in looks, Simple to Implement and flexible and which can address day to day business apps scenarios is the simple vision behind Silverlight. (Correct me if I am wrong here). Vision is still the same rather its getting mature by each version.

You :

Silverlight made its presence on Web, Then Out of Browser and now with Windows Phone 7 on Mobile. If some technology is addressing such things, How can it be dead in one day by just one announcement or blog post? Think Twice !!

I do not want to promo any links here just to showcase how Silverlight is wonderful, you all know, tons of apps are out there ! Choosing “Silverlight” for your application as a core platform and then going on with client, I know how much difficult life is ! But with the amount of resources available today, Life is simple.SDKs and Tools are available and decent enough to develop LOB/Enterprise apps.

Don’t waste your valuable time in thinking about HTML5 and what will happen in future. Right now keep focus on your current Silverlight development and upcoming Silverlight development and see how you can do it best with Silverlight.

So, Please please please ! Silverlight is not dead ! If someone told you that then he/she is not your well wisher !!

Me :

I will be here as long as Silverlight technology is here, Even though in future I may not have MVP title but still I will be blogging about Silverlight and related stuff at my best.So don’t worry, This blog is not dead and neither this is my last post. I will be back !

I am available here or on my email id, so please feel free if you have any questions about adopting Silverlight Technology.

In short :

• Apps are mostly build on top of facts and reality and not only on predictions and philosophy,views of public.
• Windows Vs Linux, ASP.NET Vs PHP, Silverlight Vs Flash – Ok to read on it while having cup of coffee. Don’t make your business decision only on top of them.
• Clarify your doubts,concerns,feedback with Microsoft via Right Channels  - Forums, Community, MVPs
• Create Simple POCs based on Silverlight before going to large implementations, Do deep dive analysis and then go ahead
• Understand Silverlight Architecture and overall technology
• Try your best to relate your business needs with features provided by Silverlight so as to come closer to final solution

Bottom-line :

Silverlight is not dead and got a great future ! Tech journalist will not come down to your office and help you in building POCs on Silverlight or HTML5, So make sure you verify the information.

“This Vs That” posts will not add value to you or your customer or your community, Live in real world !

Think first about your customer needs and how better you can serve him, then think about Technology then no matter what it is Silverlight or anything else, Go with it !

Well, I hope you got the message what I want to say here, Keep all the HTML 5 Vs Silverlight stuff aside, open your Visual Studio, File > New Project > Silverlight .. Start !

Silverlight..long live !!

Vikram.