With Silverlight around, is it the end of the road for
Adobe? Maybe yes, to a large extent. You have in Silverlight usage of XAML, the
runtime speed, a wide range of flexible options with a variety of programming
language support, a strong multimedia support, compatibility and support for
the .NET managed environment and even more! According to some industry tycoons,
it is going to become a "Flash-killer" and very well poised to
dethrone Adobe in no time.
Still, you will find some critics who often create
controversy so as to usher a new light in the horizon. Silverlight has been
criticized often for the lack of Linux support or any platform other than
Windows and Mac OS X, citing it as a factor that could limit the widespread
adoption of Silverlight in the development community around the globe.
It has further encountered criticism for ignoring existing
international standards. According to Ryan Paul of Ars Technica, Microsoft
could have chosen SVG to implement the vector graphics subset, instead of a
"limited and compatible facsimile," to show their commitment to open
standards and also fix the standards problems that plagues Internet Explorer.
He feels this is inconsistent with Microsoft’s ignoring of open standards in
other products as well.
Moreover, according to David Betz, a standards advocate,
Microsoft would have needed to alter the SVG specification to add .NET
integration and UI constructs on top of SVG. Consequently, the "choice by
Microsoft to use XAML over SVG, served to retain the SVG standard by not adding
proprietary technology" he further reiterates.