

Goodbye Silverlight - Baustin
http://blog.smartbear.com/software-quality/bid/289660/Goodbye-Silverlight

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shmerl
_> To get the same quality and security in HTML5, there is a need to implement
video extensions into the players via the use of DRM encryption and JavaScript
to the Netflix servers._

This is completely disingenuous. DRM has nothing to do with security, and it
is for sure not required to get the same quality.

On the contrary, DRM always compromises security and always reduces the
quality of the content (in a sense of crippled usability).

~~~
crisnoble
I agree that DRM compromises usability. However, I don't think the author
meant that DRM would needs to be there in order to help out the quality.

~~~
shmerl
Usability should be viewed as a quality aspect. Reduced usability means low
quality product.

~~~
crisnoble
Agreed. I think the author should have said "In order to satiate content
owners' demands, developers will need to implement DRM. The quality of HTML5
streaming still needs work."

~~~
Gmooney
Thank you. You are correct that I should have elaborated here. There
definitely seems to be some confusion on my stance to DRM from the way I
stated it.

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NotAnEngineer
> Despite that issue, we want our videos streamed in high quality and securely

Based on the previous paragraph (about getting Netflix to almost work on
Linux), I'm guessing that the "we" here is consumers of video, not producers
or distributors. In which case, no, "we" do not give a rat's ass about whether
our videos are streamed "securely."

"We" want to watch what we want to watch when we want to watch it. Content
producers insisted on "security" and Netflix chose Silverlight as a short-term
technical solution to that problem. No one else wanted it. We just tolerated
it.

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thoughtsimple
It seems hard to say goodbye when the thing that is supposedly leaving is
going to hang around for another 7+ years.

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j_s
Not sure why this is news now; Microsoft announced this back when Silverlight
5 was first supported back in December of 2011.

[http://www.linkedin.com/groups/Microsoft-support-
Silverlight...](http://www.linkedin.com/groups/Microsoft-support-
Silverlight-5-until-124074.S.84758245)

    
    
      > it actually says 2021 or the support lifecycle of each of the supported 
      > browsers, whichever is shorter. When IE 9 is no longer supported you can 
      > pretty much consider Silverlight unsupported as well.
    

... though technically there are +'s next to the alternative browsers (Firefox
3.6+, Safari 4+, Chrome 12+) so there's plenty of wiggle room left for
interpretation.

~~~
IvyMike
The reason it's being talked about is because Netflix's recent transition plan
is a milestone--the only Silverlight application I knowingly use is finally
going away.

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ttrashh
_Many window users faced Silverlight quality issues themselves due to their
.Net frameworks not being up to date. For the best performance, they needed to
download the .Net 4.0 SDK in Windows, which is something the average Netflix
customer would not be willing to do._

Silverlight doesn't require the .Net framework on the machine. Not sure what
performance issues he is talking about but Silverlight has better streaming
features and performance than flash or html5.

------
btbuildem
And good riddance..

~~~
Baustin
Indeed.

