The saga continues
While we found nothing wrong with Microsoft's comments regarding the decision to shift focus away from Silverlight as a multi-platform solution, it hasn't sat quite so well with everyone. Many members of the development community have expressed their dissatisfaction with the move, prompting two Microsoft execs to weigh in on the matter.
At first, Bob Muglia - who gave the original interview that set the controversy in motion - chimed in to clarify his comments. He admitted that the statements may have "surprised people and caused controversy," but emphasised that even though the strategy and focus had shifted, this "isn't a negative statement, but rather, it's a comment on how the industry has changed and how we're adapting". He also tried to make it clear that Silverlight had always been designed to complement HTML and do things which that standard couldn't, rather than replace it.
Muglia obviously apologised, but unfortunately, the damage had been done, and his words did little to calm the masses.
Many members of the developer community fired back responses to Muglia's blog post, expressing feelings of disappointment and betrayal, as well as general sense of demoralisation and abandonment. Several specifically saw the post as a half-hearted attempt at "damage control" that didn't really address the issue at hand.
The stir has even caused Steve Ballmer to get involved. In a general wrap up of PDC2010, the CEO emphasised Microsoft's key technologies, with Silverlight featuring heavily. In fact, the technology is mentioned five times in the 400 word blog post, even though it wasn't mentioned at all in his PDC keynote. Across all of the first-day keynotes, Silverlight was only name-checked once, and even then it was in reference to Windows Phone 7, where the platform is in an important part of the development environment.
Microsoft seems to be backtracking quite hard, but as ever, actions speak louder than words. At this point, it seems that the company will have to show a strong commitment to the platform in order to reassure the community.
