I know we all like to hate MS, but what's so bad about Silverlight as opposed to Flash?

What's so bad about Flash that we need Silverlight?

Speaking of epic fail, the writing on this post is miserable.

Never mind that PPC Mac users (some of those machines are less than two years old) are completely left out, since Silverlight 2 is Intel-only. Big thanks to NBC for that decision...I already expressed my displeasure through their feedback form.

What is the problem with Silverlight? I don't get it. Took less than a minute to install it. Works fine. Where is the epic fail? Where has it failed for you?

This thing keeps crashing safari, no matter how many times I re-install. Epic Fail for sure.

Is this blog the place to express it? I expect better...

I was using my brothers computer to go to the apple.com website to take a look at the computers, and i couldn't believe it: Apple had the gall to make me install quicktime! Even more infuriating was that quicktime 7 couldn't be installed on his Pentium Pro Packard Bell. I mean how can I be expected to use a company's software just to view their products, they totally should have supported Adobe and used flash.

Oh and by the way, in case you were sleeping when they announced it, but turns out the olympics can be viewed for free on over the air broadcasts, but would you believe it, in order to do that they require you to own a television! What has this world come to.

Adobe release buggy updates to Flash that crash Firefox and Safari on a regular basis but it seems many Mac users would prefer sites use it because it's not from Microsoft. Makes no sense whatsoever.

Silverlight offers quality of video that Flash cannot match. Therefore the quality of the Olympic offering is superior as a Silverlight implementation compared to if it was flash.

Install Silverlight, enjoy an amazing experience and thank Microsoft and NBC for provided unprecedented access to these Olympic Games.

re: ???

do you really believe accessibility to apple.com is as important as accessibility to the OLYMPIC GAMES? please!! NBC should have made sure, DAMN SURE, that online video content of the olympic games would be accessible to the widest possible audience. a lot of people don't like installing more crap onto their computer to view video (or any other reason, really). i was appalled when i was forced to install *BETA* microsoft software on my intel iMac to view these games. i'm PISSED to find out i can't even do it on my powerbook.

this was just a power grab by microsoft to peddle their crap onto millions of computers in very short order. next they will brag about the adoption rate and use those statistics to get more developers to use it. UGH

Microsoft have been divesting from that partnership for a long time now. It's already a mere minority stakeholder.

Dude the point is, that a PowerPC Mac should easily be able to run Silverlight. It seems rather arbitrary, but typical of MS, to just not code a PowerPC version for something that should be as ubiquitous as Olympic programming.

Powerpc mac? try almost 3 years old since the intel macs were unveiled 2/14/2006. And pentium pro is more like 12 years old so no doubt your cousin needs a newer pc. Did anyone ever think that maybe your powerpc chips aren't powerful enough to watch videos anymore. before y'all think that i'm just trying to start something I've been using computers since the pentium pros were new, and currently i'm typing this on a powerbook G4 667mhz, even youtube lags on this laptop

did you honestly think i was for real when i said i used a packard bell pentium pro? the pentium pro came out in 1996. i was poking fun at someone who thinks that because they happen to have a powerbook that every service provider should cater to their needs. i can't begin to imagine how much he'll bitch when apple pulls the support on their new os' for ppc. and this is coming from a ibook user mind you.

watching the olympics is not a "right" nbc does not "owe you" the ability to watch the olympic games. if there were to be some programing required for someone in a public school to watch for their classes and it forced you to use some proprietary software, well then that might be an issue... oh wait, didn't apple start making podcasts for schools that kids are required to watch, which forces them to download itunes on their computer? hmmm, well i guess that's ok because its apple and itunes is totally the best.

you people need a reality check, every tech company is going to use whatever edge they can get in order to get the general public to use their software.

Umm....

You have to install Flash too. It's not like its built right into the browser or anything. It's also irrelevant if your on a PC or Mac too- you have to install it on a PC as well if you don't have it yet.

Also, even Apple is starting to cut support for the PowerPC platform so you can't really blame MS.

I'm a big baseball fan, and MLB TV also use silverlight to stream live games, and the service is a lot better since they have been using it.

While advertising their online features they used firefox and not ie

I'd prefer Silverlight to Flash (most of the time). As mentioned by someone else, Silverlight has MUCH better video quality, but it's also less taxing on your browser/computer resources.

One can only have a very low (less than 19) instances on Flash running at once, also. That means, if you have the MSNBC site open and are playing a video, then those two banner ads are counted as separate instances. So, you're typical site with video means you have 3 instances of Flash running. A couple more tabs ad Flash quits running.

Finally, I just upgraded to a new iMac a month ago, so I know just how annoying it is to have applications not support PPC. And there are plenty of apps that require Intel. It sucks, but Silverlight is not the only one. Nor is it the most important.... not by a long shot.

I hate to say this, but if anyone has the right to complain, it's WIndows XP users. Only Vista and Intel-based OS X machines can stream the Olympics.

Last time I checked, Flash supported the industry standard of H.264 encoded MP4s at true HD resolutions. Silverlight being used for the Olympics is simply a power play by Microsoft. Just ask the person who received the 8 figure check over at NBC Universal. By all accounts, they also got access to the engineering team and streaming infrastructure support.

Yeah, I have heard of Flash. Seems Apple is struggling with it though, since I can't view any of it on my iPhone.

As for bitching about having to install a program from Microsoft, I have to install QuickTime just to get iTunes... the most USELESS piece of software bullshit ever made.

If Apple would come up with a more broadly available DRM solution, lots more content might make it's way to iTunes. I realize that's different from streaming, but nbc is also supporting video downloads -- but not for Mac because of DRM issues.