Waste of time vs Bloated mess - Haggis (Sean Loyless)

Silverlight depends on XAML, which is a Microsoft product all the way. That enough is going to turn off many developers who instinctivly/reactively hate anything MS. So, Flash will win out just because of the "anything but Microsoft" mentality. - Jason Shultz from twhirl

I still think, deep in a basement of microsoft somewhere, there is an MS Office port being developed for silverlight. If MS releases that, it's a game changer. If that doesn't happen I don't think Silverlight will gain traction because of the sheer momentum of Flash, even though the ability to use programming languages other than ActionScript could be a huge win for developers. - mikepk

And when I say "port" I clearly mean a web based MS Office and not a port in the classic sense of the word. - mikepk

Flash has permeated the market. Silverlight wont. - Photo Larry from feedalizr

@Haggis - spot on! - JA Castillo

It's all about the first mover here - what does Silverlight bring to the table that Flash Player already doesn't? Silverlight needs to bring something different enough for users and/or developers to want to move to it. Given Flash's presence on the web and now slowly on the desktop, MSFT has little chance. They can perhaps leverage their strong presence in Enterprises perhaps - we'll wait and see. - Kamath (नमः)

I'll go with Flash's bloated mess. At least it runs on PPC Macs. - Chris Baskind

flash is a bloated mess but silverlight is too microsoft-y. - mjc

Is the solution to an already accepted standard being bloated to create yet another closed source "alternative"? I think not. - ixtli

Silverlight is the solution. As long as the problem is vampire werewolves! - Mike Lewis

Silverlight will definitely find adoption in the .Net market, and at least .Net is a much better language/framework than ActionScript. Plus Silverlight also has some decent features built in for advertising (and a few nifty features like Deep Zoom). But is that enough to usurp a standard such as Flash? Only time will tell I guess, but I definitely think MS could have devoted those Silverlight resources to something more profitable and promising. Competing with Adobe in rich media is like competing with Google in search, and we all know how much luck MS has had with the latter. - Devlin Dunsmore from twhirl

IE vs. Netscape? Discuss. Windows v. OS2? Discuss. Word v. Corel? Discuss. Xbox's v. Playstation's? Maybe discuss. - Ryan

Both attempt to fill a programming hole in browsers. That's the real issue. What will be interesting to see is how the success of these platfoms changes as more phone and handhelds provide richer and richer browsing experiences. The platform that can adapt the best is going to have the edge. - Loren Heiny

As a .NET-developer/architect, I couldn't care less about Flash/Flex. However, Silverlight has sparked my interest in RIA and if a project benefits from RIA-elements, I'd choose Silverlight (2.0). Besides familiar tools and language (C#), there are technical benefits, like compiled code vs. ActionScript. The video quality and streaming is also very good. Also, similarity with WPF means that learning another technology, makes adopting the other also faster. Anyway, I don't have anything against Flash - it just doesn't spark any enthusiasm in me like Silverlight does. - Jemm