First impressions of Microsoft Silverlight (and how to get rid of it)
Posted on 18th July 2009 in RIA | 17 Comments »
Quite frankly, pretty much everyone familiar with Adobe Flash Platform would agree, that Microsoft’s recent try to produce their own RIA platform is not up to scratch. A very short walk-through below should give an idea of what’s the status of this venture.
Silverlight has a browser plugin similar to Flash Plugin. You can get the package from their site which in fact doesn’t work properly with Safari, no wonder:
Then again, after using it for some time and stumbling upon a site that has Silverlight content, be prepared to get a pop-up like this one:
Compared to the upgrade policies of Flash Platform, this is a true Microsoft approach flooding you with pop-ups, confirmation messages, windows you’ve got to tick in, go through, read and accept etc. Annoying. One of those reasons to convert from Windows.
Now, a machead uncomfortable with such approaches on a Mac, could wonder, how do I get rid of this Silverlight madness? It was installed from a PKG file without any references or documentation on how to uninstall it. Also, since their website is barely usable on Safari, there’s not much hope to find appropriate info from there either.
After some googling, here’s the procedure on how to uninstall Silverlight:
- Open Terminal from Applications > Utilities
- Copy and paste following lines to Terminal, one by one (and hit Enter in between):
rm -rf /Library/Internet Plug-Ins/Silverlight.plugin rm -rf /Library/Receipts/Silverlight*.pkg rm -rf ~/Library/Application Support/Microsoft/Silverlight
- Restart the browser(s)
For the time being Microsoft Silverlight is a no-go. Leaving all of the above aside, its rendering engine is not as fast and good, esp. quality-wise.
17 Responses
I get the feeling you are not very fond of Microsoft?
Personally i wont be removing Silverlight from my system as there are some great sites working with it.
Also there are several advantages of Silverlight on the Mac when compaired to Flash. For one thing it doesnt hog your whole system like Flash does, and it *is* on par with the Windows edition. (Adobe never took any interest in delivering a Flash Mac version that was on par with its Windows edition – Flash on the Mac is much much slower and buggier than the Windows version).
I’m not willing to turn this into PC vs Mac conversation, thus I’m just saying it took me 10 minutes to establish that Silverlight is no competition to Flash at this stage.
Reading your other entries its clear you hate anything MS but what did you do in 10 minutes that solidified Silverlight to be no match for Adobe?
As a developer that has had experience developing in both Flash and Silverlight, I can say that each technology has its benefits and limitations. Personally, I prefer Silverlight. Flash is over 10 years old, and SIlverlight is just a baby compared to it, but it is maturing rapidly and has a great potential. So, instead of crying like a baby “I don’t like it”, give it a chance. Most likely, you won’t regret it.
On the other side, thanks for the tip on how to remove a stale version of Silverlight. It can help while installing a newer version in case other installation gets corrupt. I would recommend reporting it to Microsoft to help other people out.
Well, it doesn’t really take light years to establish whether or not something is ready for a serious deployment.
Some additional reading and discussion:
Silverlight: The good, the bad and the ugly by Serge Jespers
Adobe AIR versus Microsoft Silverlight by Peter Elst
Silverlight VS Flex discussion on LinkedIn RIA community
As it has been said in one of the comments in the latter discussion, there are loyal camps on both sides. The above article on the other hand doesn’t pretend to the universal truth, but provides a considerable angle, a first impression.
Again, you have provided no reason why YOU were able to decide in 10 mins it was not ready?
The articles you referenced are a year old as well and provide no update on the advances and changes that have come in silverlight 3.
Also as a reference point netflix uses silverlight and it runs beautifully because of it. Whereas from my understanding would not be able to handle HD (I could be wrong and will gladly accept it if so)
crap, that should say from my understanding flash would not be able to handle HD
Also, your method for removing silverlight isn’t the safest thing to do and should be noted that running that command with the root of the file system could cause a problem for someone not familiar with the rm-rf command
Also MS has provided a page on the Official Silverlight page to remove old versions on OSX -
http://www.microsoft.com/silverlight/get-started/install/uninstall-mac.aspx
There’s even video on how to as well…
This comment here “pretty much everyone familiar with Adobe Flash Platform would agree”
Who are these people – I understand its a blog but honestly you might as well rename it “I hate everything MS” as it seems so.
Add in also you reference your blog on every article on Betanews and your topic of conversation is hate on everything MS.
Please refer to the discussion of RIA group on LinkedIn for comprehensive reasoning from me and many other experienced developers, not just guys with 3 or less years of history with Silverlight.
Quite clearly you are not RIA expert not knowing about Flash H.264 support. It must have not been hard to google on this one, but instead you are spouting rubbish.
This blog promotes Open Standards and Open Source Software, a subject Microsoft is notorious for. On the other hand, SWF was opened in 1998, at the time Silverlight was not even roadmapped.
If the policies behind Microsoft software engineering will not change and even European Commission has to force antitrust cases yearly, there’s no doubt this blog will continue promoting anti-Microsoft thinking and alternative platforms. I can guarantee that.
First off I stated I was not aware flash could do HD and would gladly accept I was wrong instead you chose to ignore it for whatever reason…
Really? you are going to spout the EC? How well did Windows XP N sell because they wanted the media player out of it? It failed you say? ah, and now Windows 7 E has no IE in it, that will fail too. Sorry, the EC has no clue but if MS wants to continue to do business there they have to put up with it.
Secondly, just because flash has been around longer does not make it better. Both have their advantages & disadvantages but it depends on what you are using it for.
Finally, competition is a GOOD thing, it forces other competitors to do more with their products.
Totally agree with you Patrick re EU Commission.
Why don’t they break up the EU electricity monopolies, these impact on the ongoing expenses of every household and business in the EU. Instead they are concerned about a quasi monopoly which gives away a browser, which users are free to replace with any one of many other free browsers. But electricity users (that’s everybody – private & corporate) have NO CHOICE from whom they buy their electricity.
Sorry this should have been the 1st para
Re uninstalling stuff, MS sees to be following “worlds best practice” http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/141/tn_14157.html
Philip, please also submit a DMG file by Microsoft for removing Silverlight plugin. Many of the readers would appreciate that, instead of managing the procedure with Terminal.
Re electricity monopolies: please don’t discuss things you have no clue about. I’d advise you to check up on the latest EP on energy (and why not telecom) legislation proceedings as well. And maybe you’d also need to check up on anti-software patents movement in Europe that is a far different approach from US/Australia.
I agree with Patrick Re competition and in fact it’s a great initiative from Microsoft in order to thrive Flash Platform + surely the use case is of most importance.
“Again, Microsoft needs Silverlight to succeed far more than most web sites or web viewers need Silverlight. That’s the most tenuous of all possible value propositions.” by Jan Ozer in Reflections on H.264 and Silverlight from a week at Stanford
Hi,
i cannot get this damn program uninstalled or updated and the update install button keeps popping up… as you stated above…..
# Open Terminal from Applications > Utilities
# Copy and paste following lines to Terminal, one by one (and hit Enter in between):
rm -rf /Library/Internet Plug-Ins/Silverlight.plugin
rm -rf /Library/Receipts/Silverlight*.pkg
rm -rf ~/Library/Application Support/Microsoft/Silverlight
How do you open terminal on your computer…I am running xp sp3? And where is it? Do you mean cmd prompt? And if so what directory do i use? I have tried searching google for this and can’t find it anywhere…lots of conflicting answers…
I have subscribed to the rss response feed but if you could also email me at silverlight help in subject would be great…or hopefully i will get the rss…..
Please this error is driving me crazy and driving me one step closer to the apple store for a MAC…
TIA
To complement this discussion here, here’s a little something for all the Silverlight people to think about: Applications for iPhone.
Hi, I found this blog post while searching for help with Microsoft Silverlight. I have recently changed browsers from Google Chrome to Microsoft IE 6. Now I seem to have a issue with loading websites that have Microsoft Silverlight. Every time I go on a site that requires Microsoft Silverlight, my computer freezes and I get a “npctrl.dll” error. I cannot seem to find out how to fix the problem. Any aid getting Microsoft Silverlight to function is very appreciated! Thanks