Silverlight vs Flash vs HTML5, should I care?

Question

I have read a range of articles on advantages/disadvantages of Microsoft Silverlight framework in comparisson to Flash.

Fact that there were two version of Silverli

Answer 1

This is basically the way I pick web technologies:

• do you need to support every available platform made now, in the past and in the future? HTML4 (yes, 4!)
• Do you have to make stuff that is not possible with HTML4, and are ready to sacrifice some user base? HTML5
• Can you limit yourself to desktop users (no mobile devices) and need a very interactive application (more so than a "website")? Flash or Silverlight
• Do you need to integrate with .NET? Silverlight
• Are you familiar with .NET (more so than Flash)? Silverlight
• Do you want to reach the absolute maximum number of users? Flash
• Do you know Flash/ActionScript (more so than .NET)? Flash
• Do you need even more features than what Silverlight provides, and can you limit your deployment to intranets? WPF/XBAP

The whole debate around Silverlight being dead is completely flawed in my opinion: those that thought Silverlight would be completely multiplatform really were not connected with the reality: just by looking at Flash it was clear from the beginning that iOS & co. would never support Silverlight.

HTML5 will probably be the real "universal multiplatform" environment (what is HTML4 now), but with all the nightmares we all know of html. If you are targeting desktops and need more interactivity, better tooling, unit testing & co. then Flash and Silverlight will still be the first choice.

Silverlight's user base is quickly coming close to Flash, so between those two it really comes down to the one you know better and the ease of integration with an existing backend.

The fact that Silverlight got a new major version every 9 months until now is just a sign of how much they are pushing it. Now that it's reached a mature stage you can expect to see larger intervals.