Silverlight is a cross-browser, cross-platform plug-in for delivering the next generation of media experiences and rich interactive applications (RIAs) for the Web. – Microsoft

They just don’t seem to get it! Microsoft has released Silverlight as a rival to Adobe Flash, yet I can’t help but feel this product is doomed. I went over to the Silverlight microsite this morning to see what all the buzz was about. My dismay started immediately when I couldn’t watch the video on my Mac, but wait, isn’t this supposed to be a cross-platform / cross-browser product. Then why can’t I learn about it on my Mac?

I’m sort of used to this kind of thing from Microsoft so I went over to my XP machine and IE7 locked up on me when I went to the site. Next, I tried Firefox 2.0 on the PC and I could finally see the video. Given the fact they made me work so hard to see this video, it better be worth it…. but it wasn’t.

The video shows impressive visualization but I finished the video only more confused then when I first visited the site. Is this tool a video editing tool? Does it do 3D visualization like Anark Studio? Is it a 100% clone of Flash?

God, I wish Microsoft would innovate something worthwhile or at the very least if they are going to rip off rival products then at least make them better!

We are a .NET shop and I’m constantly at a loss for why there aren’t more .NET open-source projects. I’m disappointed that the only open-source .NET application that has gained any attention has been DotNetNuke.

Why hasn’t the .NET community churned out more .NET based open-source projects? I fully understand the strength of the other web software tools / development environments outside of .NET but rather then discussing the pros and cons I want to better understand why there is a void.

Microsoft, perhaps you should sponsor a .NET open-source challenge? Common, you put your name and money behind it and we’ll organize the show. Even ex-Microsoft evangelist / employee Robert Scoble is using WordPress (a non-.NET based blog tool).

Last week NPR Science Friday interviewed Apple Co-Founder / Engineering Guru Steve Wozniak. Steve was asked by a caller why Apple, with it’s superior GUI lost the race with Microsoft Windows, which at the time was a command driven interface.

Woz commented that business executives felt the Apple was more of a toy with it’s mouse and pretty graphics whereas the command-line driven Windows was more for the professional. Even though Apple did everything Windows did, while making it easier to use, the perception was Windows was superior to Apple.

In recent years we have seen an increasing adoption of Linux in the business world. In the past, most Linux installations required some basic command-line knowledge to effectively navigate and use the OS. Limiting the Linux adoption to coders and IT professionals.

This is just my opinion, but on a usability scale Apple OSX is both friendly and powerful. Linux is the least friendly but most powerful OS on the market, and Windows falls somewhere in the middle. I realize that there are various Linux distributions which are indeed friendly and powerful, but I’m generalizing.

Given Woz’s comments, is there still a perception that complex looking UI’s  seem more powerful to the uneducated user, or has the pendulum swung back in Apple’s favor of simple, easy to use software = power.

I’ve recently found a interesting Q&A from 2005 with Harvard faculty Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Pankaj Ghemawat. It provides a good, readable summary of their dense academic paper, Dynamic Mixed Duopoly: A Model Motivated by Linux vs. Windows. It’s interesting reading about the Microsoft and Open Source Software rivalry.

In a nutshell, they conclude that Microsoft will probably always be on top, but Linux will probably never go away, if not grow a bit. The article does not mention Apple.

Here are some interesting quotes:

“.. Linux[will] never…[displace]… Windows of its leadership position. This result holds true regardless of the strength of Linux’s demand-side learning [ie, ease of use; emphasis original].”

“We found that in countries where piracy is highest, Linux has the lowest penetration rate.”

“…while a monopoly of Linux is always preferable (from the point of view of societal welfare) to a Windows monopoly, it is ambiguous whether a duopoly Linux-Windows is better than a Windows monopoly… while a monopoly of Linux is always preferable (from the point of view of societal welfare) to a Windows monopoly, it is ambiguous whether a duopoly Linux-Windows is better than a Windows monopoly.”

Interesting. I’m not sure I agree with their conclusions. If Linux was as easy to use as any Mac and free, wouldn’t everyone use it?

Then again, I’m not a professor at Harvard. Read the Q&A here.