Excerpt from http://www.silverlight.net: "Microsoft® Silverlight™ is a cross-browser, cross-platform plug-in for delivering the next generation of .NET based media experiences and rich interactive applications for the Web. Silverlight offers a flexible programming model that supports AJAX, VB, C#, Python, and Ruby, and integrates with existing Web applications. Silverlight supports fast, cost-effective delivery of high-quality video to all major browsers running on the Mac OS or Windows."

Following are the interesting aspects of Silverlight:

  • Cross platform browser support (IE6, IE7, Firefox 1.5.0.8, Firefox 2.0.x, and Apple Safari 2.0.4)
  • The plug-in is under 2MB
  • Operating systems include Windows Vista, Windows XP SP2,  Mac OS X.
  • CLR support in Silverlight 1.1 - CLR contains same GC and type system support as the full version of the CLR (server as well as workstation). This is not the light weight CLR as in netcf. Essential .NET framework support that includes System.NET, XML, WPF, managed HTML DOM, etc.
  • ASP.NET Silverlight controls enables selective rich content areas to web pages.
  • Bidirectional interaction between HTML world and the Silverlight world
  • Integrated development experience with Expression Studio
  • Dynamic language support (JScript, Python and Ruby)
  • Siliverlight applications can be developed on Windows and published on to any non-Windows platform

Following are a few useful links:

Silverlight 1.1 Quickstarts : http://silverlight.net/quickstarts/Start/default.aspx

Silverlight FAQ: http://www.microsoft.com/silverlight/faq.aspx

Silverlight demos: http://silverlight.net/themes/silverlight/community/gallerydetail.aspx?cat=2

Silverlight on MSDN: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/asp.net/bb187358.aspx

Publish Silverlight through PHP: Screencast (PHP)

Publish Silverlight through JSP: Screencast (JSP)

Cheers,

HanuK