RSSBeta of Microsoft's Flash Rival Coming
By Nate Mook | Published November 13, 2006, 5:55 PM
Microsoft is preparing to release a Community Technology Preview of WPF/E, a subset of the Windows Presentation Foundation that utilizes cross-browser Web technologies and is designed to run on multiple operating systems and even mobile devices - with capabilities similar to Adobe's Flash.
WPF/E was introduced at PDC 2005 and further demoed at Microsoft's MIX '06 event in Las Vegas earlier this year. Specifically, WPF/E relies on XAML and JavaScript to build pages, and will also contain a small, cross platform subset of the CLR and .NET Framework runs C# or VB.NET code.
"Yes, we are bringing C# programming to the Mac," Microsoft developer Mike Harsh said last March.
But despite its appearances and claims that WPF/E will be Microsoft's "Flash killer," the company says the product was designed with a different purpose in mind: to use Microsoft technologies and software to build applications that not only run on the desktop, but also on the Web and cell phones.
"WPF/E came about not as a "me too" but as the result of candid conversations with Microsoft customers," explained developer Joe Stegman over the weekend. "So at the core, WPF/E is about something fundamentally different than a "me too" technology - it's about providing a continuum for developers/designers/CTOs across the full Microsoft developer/designer product offering."
Stegman adds that although WPF/E has been designed with a broad group of developers and usage scenarios in mind, it must be consistent with other Microsoft product offerings. "Obviously, this is not something the Flash Platform can or should be," he said.
Microsoft has kept quiet about WPF/E for most of the year, namely due to internal changes regarding branding and messaging about the product, which can be difficult to grasp conceptually. The Redmond company also needs to decide how to get developers onboard and actively using the new technology.
"Although we've been silent, we have been working non-stop since I presented at Mix 06 last year," Stegman added. "We've released several Microsoft internal versions of WPF/E and will be releasing an external Customer Technology Preview (CTP) soon."
Microsoft watcher Mary Jo Foley said she expects the 1.0 version of WPF/E to arrive mid to late next year.
Just waiting for this guys !!!! if you can also think of a real time product clubbing the Direct X thing for a comple game development solution then it will be rocking everybody.
Microsoft ROCKS.
Regards,
Ashok Srinivasan.
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|WPF/E last time I checked require no plugins just .Net Framework. I thought thatw as the whole point, anything from the browser becaus it's built into the operating system. Isn't that why they are abstracting DirectX to make it a layer so you can run real games in a web brower too, all without a plugin or separate app?
XAML is pretty cool, the only downside I see is it's just another form of DHTML, meaning XAML is MSXML with MS specific functionality. So we're back to 1996 again like with DHTML, it may rock but unless the Netscape I mean Firefox people use it there will still be no standard. All this AJAX I did much better when it was DHTML an Data Binding with client side VBScript. It may have taken more work to secure, but I target people who know how to configure their trusted zones.
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|I really hope that SVG will make it to the masses, at least because it is an W3C standard, open source, clear and xml based.
Flash and WPF/E are closed source technologies, they need plugins to render their compiled files (at least with adobe swf, but i'm sure MS will do the same), and there are issues with search engine indexation (you cannot index the content of an swf).
Once SVG 1.2 spec. will be out (not only as a draft) and its support will be correctly implemented into major browsers flash, wpf/e or anything else will be obsolete.
Let's see how things will evolve, and hope SVG won't prematurely die.
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|NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!
We do not need another stupid web browser plugin.
Flash is bad enough, Sure there are a few neat things doen with Flash but 99% of Flash is just used to get around popup blockers.
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|Quote: "Yes, we are bringing C# programming to the Mac," Microsoft developer Mike Harsh said last March.
C# compiler has been available for Mac OS X since june 30, 2004, in the form of Mono
http://www.mono-project.com/Mono:OSX
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mono_%28software%29
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|I have a friend who uses a product called Swish that is like flash. I haven't tried it, but thought it was worth mentioning... http://www.swishzone.com/index.php
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|Swish is a software producing animations in flash format (swf), so it is just a lighter clone of adobe's flash, nothing really interesting.
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|Hopefully it'll take off. I think Adobe will screw up Flash. I liked Macromedia Flash until Adobe bought it out. Although flash sites usually take a while to load. Maybe Microsoft's version won't take so long.
Dreamweaver was also the best editor. Who knows what Adobe will do to it.
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|just hope it doesn't end up like Java.
from a user's point of view, MS Java VM was much better than Sun's considering it takes awhile to load, take bunch of resource, and crashes as well.
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|Agree with you there. I still install XP using an XP "Gold" (no service packs) CD and then update it to SP2 just because I can't stand Sun's Java console. It isn't that I love Microsoft's VM as much as it is that I hate Sun's bloated implementation.
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|good show good show ... i hope microsoft's alternative is better .. and easier on my computer lol
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|I don't even care if this thing materializes and becomes successful. I'm just glad to see someone really scare the *** out of Adobe and their paranoid, idiotic stranglehold on a small piece of turf. They ruined Macromedia the day they bought them. I hope Adobe stays alive only to maintain competition. If either MS or Adobe fails anytime soon, _we_ will be the losers.
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|yep!
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|Anything closed source shall not kill flash. Flash is cancer and only something like svg or smil should be able to replace it.
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|YES! I was right! Adobe did have something specific to alienate Microsoft! (see http://www.betanews.com/...e_to_Mozilla/1162924245)
So the donation of code to Mozilla must have been in response to Microsoft's new Flash Rival--makes sense...
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|Not to burst your bubble dude, but it has been common knowledge that there was an MS flash rival coming out for a while and it is pretty obvious that the code donation Adobe -> Mozilla was in reponse to this. Just sayin'...
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|Really? I didn't hear about it until this article, but then again, there's alot that goes on before the first beta. Well, I suppose I am the ignorant one in this case then...
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