I think this is exactly the kick that the web needs to take user experiences to the next level.

I think developers (I am one) have had enough of fighting with Javascript/DHTML/AJAX/Flash/HTML et al and are ready for a unified platform with decent developer tools (Visual Studio) which is easy to debug and creates good seperation between designers and developers.

Well done Microsoft!

So Microsoft is holding back the web by not supporting standards...

Is this news? They've been doing this for the past 15 years with IE - hardly a surprise that Silverlight follows the same thread...

The development side is also heavily biased towards .NET and C# - with so many web application developers now choosing OS X (see the number of MacBooks at any programming conference!), and Adobe's Flash being pretty much mainstream and available across platforms, this is may end up as another technology for the die-hard Windows fans only.

Microsoft should be congratulated for presenting the solution at the same time as the problem... with no cross-platform support, Silverlight will become as widely adopted as phlogiston meters and C5s... i.e. be dismissed summarily as being completely useless.

Next, we look forward to Billy Gates' implementations of the following:

- gloves for fish fingers;

- "Tony Blair for Prime Minister" badges;

- the Fred West Appreciation Society memorabilia boxed sets;

- etc., etc., etc., ...

MS is trying hard to win a long-lasting browser battle... Hard to expect them to suddenly drop the weapons and hug Mozilla guys.

Whatever Microsoft comes up with always has as a main thought to keep everybody on the Windows platform. Cross-platform and openness is only an afterthought when at first people do not want to buy into their stuff. Thanks and kudos to the open source developers for projects like Mozilla without whom we'd be stuck forever with inferior stuff like IE6. Do you really think that without Firefox there would be an IE7 and upcoming IE8??