Microsoft Silverlight
Microsoft released their version of flash. To the average person this is another web browser plugin. Remarkably even the Mac OSX version works well. It allows rich media content and applications to be displayed consistently across platforms from the web. it is even fairly small. The installer is only 2MB.
The version at the time of this writing is Beta 1.0. Initial browsing of Silverlight demonstration content is working without any errors. The only thing I did notice is that watching the Fantastic Four movie trailer still seems less fluid than the same trailer via Quicktime. This could however also be an issue of the backend servers storing the trailer.
The install on Mac OSX did not require a reboot of the machine. It only required the typical restart of the web browser so it could pick up the new plugin information.
There is little information on security vulnerabilities for Silverlight. The initial commentary indicates it might be more secure that other things Microsoft has released. We know that it not saying much. So like any beta software I recommend you do not install Silverlight on any sensitive production systems. Give it some time to be targets by security professionals then give it a shot. Over time to view some content you may find you have to load it at some point. Microsoft is good at locking in partners to their technology.
Links Mentioned:
- http://www.microsoft.com/silverlight/
