Michael Schwarz has an excellent post up on his blog on the Rich Media Platform Comparison. Michael compares 2 a set of features of the Microsoft platforms Silverlight and .NET, versus the Adobe's Flash/Flex platform. Check his blog for an overview table.

While the name "Silverlight" was announced last week, it hasn't essentially changed from what the WPF/E February CTP had on board as features. Silverlight is only the rename for the codename of Microsoft's cross-browser/cross-platform plug-in (WPF/E) for delivering the next generation media experiences and rich interactive applications (RIAs) for the Web. It's great to see that - for once - Microsoft has a cooler final name that what the codename sounded like.

The components of a Silverlight page are:

• WPF/E Plug-in
  • ActiveX control for Internet Explorer
  • Traditional plug-in for other browsers
• agHost.js
  • Host-independent wrapper for WPF/E plug-in
• HTML and JavaScript
  • Import agHost.js and instantiate plug-in
• XAML (inline or not!)

Ever thought were "Ag" in agHost.js comes from? Think about the symbol for silver ...

Here are some other very interesting posts on Silverlight:

• Junior Dev has a user control for Silverlight control instantiations inside a regular .aspx page.
• Forest Key interview [via Scott Barnes]
• Sean Alexander has a series of must-read blogs on Silverlight:
  • Introducing Microsoft Silverlight
  • WPF/E interview on On10.net
  • Top 10 Questions about Silverlight and Media
  • Top 10 Questions about Expression Media Encoder
• SilverLight, Microsoft Expression, & Visual Studio bring RIA's to life
• Channel9 video: James Clarke: Creating Silverlight Media with Expression Media Encoder

More developer-related information on the Silverlight platform can be expected at Mix07. After Mix07 we should have a better view on the capabilities of this new platform. Looking forward to be in Las Vegas next week. Countdown has started: 8 days 21 hours 16 minutes to go! Watch this Silverlight community site after Mix07!

Stay tuned!