http://www.a1technology.com/blog/2008/12/is-microsoft-silverlight-threat-to-flex.html

Interesting post.  Not trying to start an RIA Platform war or anything, but I would like to ring in on this topic.

I tend to be a little more skeptical regarding Microsoft Silverlight than the authors of the article.  First an foremost, in order to use Silverlight, your customers must install yet another Microsoft plug-in, which in my experience, is buggy at best.  Recent estimates indicate that the Adobe Flash Player is already on 90% of all computers in the world.  People are already familiar with Flash Player, people already trust Flash Player.  Microsoft... not so much.  Each new "awesome" Microsoft technology causes me to wince a little.  I do not say this lightly.  I have been a .Net Developer for 5+ years.  I'm NOT anti-Microsoft.  Not by any means.  Again from my perspective, MS tends to release software first and test later, whereas it seems that Adobe reverses that order.  



Is Adobe perfect?  No.  I think Adobe needs a more affordable pricing model for it's products.  It difficult to imagine companies making the investment in time, money, and resources venturing into uncharted territory.  Do I think the products are WORTH what Adobe charges?  ABSOLUTELY!  I currently have the Master Collection CS4 Suite and I LOVE it!  I HIGHLY recommend it with every ounce of my being.  However, I think that adoption of Adobe RIA technologies would find faster and more widespread adoption if the development products were a wee bit more affordable.  From my organization's perspective, its a chicken or egg problem.

Do I think that Silverlight is going to be around awhile?  Yup.  Is Silverlight going to dominate Flex?  Nope.  Why?  Because as our industry continues to move forward, platform integration is vital.  Silverlight follows the MS paradigm.  That means that Silverlight will require IIS and MS Server technology whereas Adobe Flex is platform agnostic.  Flex plays well with everyone.  I haven't seen or heard Silverlight demonstrate this fundamental necessity.



Anyway, this ended up being more of a rant than I had hoped.  The main objective of developers is to continually hone our craft and provide superior products.  The language/technology is usually of trivial concern... but imho, Adobe is gonna win this one.  Sorry Bill.  With all due respect, your "newest" technology is already several years behind what Flex already offers.