Technology Lab / Information Technology

Scott Guthrie: Silverlight plans go beyond Ajax and Flash

In an interview with Channel 9, Scott Guthrie, corporate vice president of …


Scott Guthrie, corporate vice president of Microsoft's .NET Developer Division, began talking about Silverlight 3 in November 2008. With MIX09 happening next month though, the man who will be making the keynote is beginning to talk more about Microsoft's plans for its Flash alternative. He has already mentioned that Silverlight 3 is going to a pretty major update; graphics improvements like hardware acceleration, H.264 support for video, and the ability have some 3D effects are in the works. The real challenge Microsoft is facing is keeping Silverlight as small as possible while adding major features.

Still, in an interview with Channel 9, Guthrie reveals that the software giant is hoping to allow developers and designers to do things in Silverlight that they can't do with current Web technologies. "The types of new things that you can't do with Ajax, or Flash, or really anything else inside the browser - you're really going to see that more and more this year," Guthrie said.

Note that Guthrie doesn't explicitly say that such features are coming in Silverlight 3—he's mainly talking about this year and the next—so he may actually be hinting at what the company is working on for Silverlight 4. Eithery way, Silverlight 3 Beta 1 will likely be announced at MIX09, so we'll finally be able to see what the company has been up to since the release of version 2 in October 2008.

You can watch the rest of Channel 9's interview, as Guthrie does touch upon more things than just Silverlight 3 and MIX09, in the following formats: MP4, MP3, WMA, WMV, and WMV (high quality).

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