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Microsoft releases Silverlight 5

Summary: Microsoft released to the Web on December 9 Silverlight 5, which could be the last major release of Microsoft's

Mary Jo Foley

By for All About Microsoft |

Microsoft made available on December 9 for download the gold version of Silverlight 5, the latest version of its browser plug-in and Web, desktop and mobile development platform

Version 5 -- which my contacts are saying is the last major release of Silverlight -- will be supported by Microsoft until 2021 -- which is a much longer period of time than previous Silverlight releases have been supported.

The less than 7 MB Silverlight 5 plug-in download is available here.

The version 5 release supports all the same platforms that the previous versions of Silverlight did: Windows, Mac. It also works with Internet Explorer, Firefox, Google Chrome and Safari.

Microsoft officials didn't use the release of Silverlight 5 as a chance to offer further guidance as to the platform's future. We still have no word on when or if there will be a Silverlight 6. There's also still no official confirmation or denial from the company about rumors I've heard that there won't be a Mix 2012 conference next year.

A list of some of Silverlight 5's features can be found in today's post on the Silverlight blog. Among those features: Hardware decode of H.264 media; extensionof the trusted application model to the browser; and graphics stack improvements with 3D support using the XNA programming interface on Windows.

Silverlight 5 was originally expected to be released to the Web in November 2011.

Topics: Windows, Software Development, Software, Operating Systems, Open Source, Microsoft, Linux, Google, Browser, Apps

About

Mary Jo has covered the tech industry for more than 25 years for a variety of publications and Web sites, and is a frequent guest on radio, TV and podcasts, speaking about all things Microsoft-related. She is the author of Microsoft 2.0: How Microsoft plans to stay relevant in the post-Gates era (John Wiley & Sons, 2008).

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23 comments
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  • RE: Microsoft releases Silverlight 5

    so 10 years of support. they'll probably throw 2 FTE at it. so about $2m total salary expense to kill off this amazing technology and please sinofsky. lets them claim a good track record on paper. sounds about right.

    now bring on better HTML5/JS tooling. oh right, the best guy for that job is now on azure. Notepad++ it is!
    amitballs
    Reply Vote

    • RE: Microsoft releases Silverlight 5

      @amitballs Agreed, we need Gu back.
      joe_krajnc
      Reply Vote

      • RE: Microsoft releases Silverlight 5

        @joe_krajnc

        Gu is the one who screwed this up. Guy has no leadership or vision. Posts those endless boring blog posts trying to establish his "coding" cred, while he should be establishing vision for dev division. Under his leadership we've seen endless proliferation of unfinished technologies. Absolute lack of focus. WPF editor in VS.NET after all these years is crap. Ditto for Silverlight. WPF is slow + it took them 5 years to fix text-rendering... List goes on and on... Good thing they've got him out of the dev division...<br><br>Problem is they are still not much better off. Whoever decided to let HTML/JavaScript be one of the platforms for creating WinRT Metro apps should be fired. One of the stupidest things I saw lately... You can place your money on this being discontinued in couple of years...<br><br>There is just general lack of direction, vision and focus in dev division. They still throw bowls of spaghetti on the wall to see what will stick. We developers get screwed if we pick spaghetti that slides behind the stove...
        dev77
        Reply Vote

      • RE: Microsoft releases Silverlight 5

        @dev77 +1
        Problem now is, whichever proprietary technology Microsoft pushes, almost nobody want to use it.
        Let's get back to standard technologies (HTML, C++, ...)
        We don't *need* new platforms, especially if this platform will die in a couple of yers.
        Dazzibao
        Reply Vote

      • To state the bleeding obvious???

        @Dazzibao
        Agreed. Proprietary technology from Microsoft has traditionally been exclusively for tying stupid users to them, to maximize Microsoft's profits.
        Luckily, nobody want it anymore. Not because developers get smarter but because the alternatives to the Microsoft one are usually or always So MUCH Better. Even Goofy would prefer the open standards, especially on the WWW.
        Mikael_z
        Reply Vote

      • RE: Microsoft releases Silverlight 5

        @dev77 OMG you have no idea what you're talking about. Scott Gu coded the first version of ASP.NET MVC on a plane ride, what have you done lately? The arrogance of the self-appointed critics here is staggering. Where is your terrific leadership and vision and why have we been deprived of it all these years?? BTW, HTML5/Javascript is the future and is an open technology and if you lack skills in that area you don't need to use the All About Microsoft news blog to cover up feelings of inadequacy and spout off that others should therefore be fired.
        EricTN
        Reply Vote

      • RE: Microsoft releases Silverlight 5

        @EricTN Big deal. He ripped Rails after they showed him how its done. Besides he did not code first version of ASP.NET MVC on airplane ride of couple hours. Proof of concept, but not first version... Besides, his job is not to code. His is leadership position, but for that he is simply not suited...
        dev77
        Reply Vote

  • Is Silverlight dead?

    It's no fun running endless "Flash is dead!" articles if we don't similarly honor Silverlight, the other animated noisemaker that's seen its last rev.
    Robert Hahn
    Reply Vote

  • RE: Microsoft releases Silverlight 5

    Mary Jo you don't know that...your spreading rumors that might not even be true. Just the fact that Microsoft hasn't said anything tells me they are keeping their options open. Requirements and cost of ownership of software will always dictate what will be used to develop software not hype and word broke journalist that depend on speculation for ratings.
    AbelWeb
    Reply Vote

  • RE: Microsoft releases Silverlight 5

    I would imagine silverlight will live on, or something so close none of us can actually tell the difference - maybe just not called silverlight - the XAML front end / c# code isn't going anywhere!
    RonanSail
    Reply Vote

  • Spreading rumors and FUD

    I recently saw a description of a video interview with Mary Jo on Microsoft's channel9 website. In the description they referred to Mary Jo as the "infamous Mary Jo Foley" (enough Mary Jos for ya!). I didn't understand the reference then, NOW I do.

    You really should let Microsoft make its own announcements about the end-of-life of its technologies. And when you get the information from them, then kindly let us know.

    Thanks Mary Jo!!
    oraman
    Reply Vote

    • RE: Microsoft releases Silverlight 5

      @oraman Well when they don't support it in their next windows what do you expect?! of course it is dead!
      L3thargic
      Reply Vote

      • RE: Microsoft releases Silverlight 5

        @MehranNZ

        What are you talking about? Only the metro version of IE10 does not support plugins. Since the browser based SL was not meant to be a touch framework, I am not surprised about this.

        In the desktop version of IE10, SL just runs fine.
        ZDNET SLACKER BLOGGERS
        Reply Vote

      • RE: Microsoft releases Silverlight 5

        @MehranNZ

        That's strange.

        I'm using Windows 8 Dev Preview... and sites with Silverlight.


        Amazing.
        Michael Alan Goff
        Reply Vote

  • re: Mary Jo

    MJF has got some good sources, and while her info probably isn't always spot-on, the items that affect me that I've tracked gives her a very good track record. Even when she maybe a bit off, her opinion may give us advance warning so we can be prepared. No body is perfect, but she is very, very good.
    olddogv
    Reply Vote

  • RE: Microsoft releases Silverlight 5

    1) NOT whole SL5 is supported on MacOSX! Interop and 3D are not woking (and will not).
    2) Any one remember MS made report that 3D in a web browser is vulnerability? And MS can not with clear consciousness support it in their browser? Now they do! Any ideas what have changed? GPU drivers got magically better? Windows handles unstable GPUs differently? 3D acceleration (shaders!) is not running on bare metal?
    przemoli
    Reply Vote

  • No 64 bit IE support

    Has Microsoft delivered or not?
    adacosta38
    Reply Vote

    • RE: Microsoft releases Silverlight 5

      @adacosta38
      SL5 should support 64bit IE.
      However 64bit IE have old JS engine, so I do not know who would want it on their Windows.
      przemoli
      Reply Vote

  • Wp7 has failed. Even Samsung Bada Outsells wp7

    Wp7 has failed.

    Even Samsung Bada Outsells wp7
    Sultansulan
    Reply Vote

    • RE: Microsoft releases Silverlight 5

      @Sultansulan
      So what?

      Even new Symbian outsell WP7, and we all now that Symbian is destined to extinct!!
      przemoli
      Reply Vote
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