Microsoft and Adobe just announced the public availability of a joint RIA platform called SilverFlash. While it is only in early beta, and the future plans are somewhat vague, this looks like it could be something quite interesting for Flash and Flex developers for several reasons.

First, it actually goes far beyond Microsoft's current Silverlight platform, in that it actually merges the Flash platform with the Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF). In some ways this seems similar to what Adobe AIR provides, except that the WPF extends much more deeply into the Windows operating system. That means a lot more power when doing desktop integration.

But obviously the real draw here is that we'll have a unified RIA platform that is backed by all the major players in the industry (even Sun is on board) and that runs on any operating system. Just imagine: the power and ubiquity of Flash combined with the stunning calendar widgets of Sliverlight, all wrapped in a Java applet. You can download the beta at the SilverFlash Launch website. This is going to do for RIAs what the Apple Newton did for handheld computing!

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Comments

  • # Posted By Arun Sarma | 4/1/09 8:24 AM

    The URL I think is:
    http://www.silverflash.com/

  • # Posted By Azadi Saryev | 4/1/09 8:42 AM

    i've heard that they were supposed to come out with the beta a long time ago, ubt kept squabbling over the name... A insisted it was called "FlashLight", but MS wanted "SilverFlash" because "at least doesn't sound stupid" and "you already have Flash Lite"... Guess MS won, then...

    hehe. nice one.

  • # Posted By jason | 4/1/09 9:59 AM

    Its actually a user friendly version of Flash for the the age challenged, the name SilverFlash. Older users were finding it difficult to use Flash 10, so Adobe decided to slow down the standard frame rate to 2 frames per second, add a larger context menu, and Microsoft has add several new setup windows and menus to try and make things easier on the older user, when it actually makes it more difficult.

  • # Posted By Gerald Guido | 4/2/09 2:51 PM

    Good one. The best pranks prey on wishful thinking.