What is Silverlight and how is different from flash? Why should I install it?

Solution 1:

Wikipedia on Silverlight:

Microsoft Silverlight is a web application framework with a scope similar to Adobe Flash. Version 2, released in October 2008, brought additional interactivity features and support for .NET languages and development tools.

So basicly, it is a competitor to Flash that uses .NET languages and is more focused on developing interactive web applications, rather than animations and movies.

Currently, Silverlight is only available for Windows and OS X, but there is an open source implementation being developed by the Mono team entitled Moonlight.

Solution 2:

I plan to install Silverlight only when:

• I stumble on Silverlight application which is so great that I will want to go through the hurdle of installing Silverlight
• I stumble on so many Silverlight applications that I can't bear browser nagging me to install Silverlight anymore

So far, I've seen Silverlight content on two random links I clicked, which didn't interest me much anyway, so I'd say that I won't install it anytime soon. :)

Solution 3:

Silverlight is basically Microsoft's take on flash.

Everyone knows what Flash is, but the difference is that Silverlight is basically a cross platform (almost) version of what ActiveX should've been (eh... sort of!)- It enables developers to make Rich applications that are sandboxed from the rest of your computer.

At the moment, Flash is still the winner in my books, but Silverlight has many really cool features - This is my favourite for a demonstration of variable bitrate video streaming.

Neither of these technologies will go away any time soon, personally I would still use Flash as Silverlight does not yet have the same reach, but it certainly is one to watch and is getting better all the time.