# .NET and More > Silverlight >  What browsers does Silverlight run in?

## Xarzu

What browsers does Silverlight run in and what browsers and versions of browsers does Silverlight not run in?

What are the browser formats to be concerned with if you want your web site to be viewed universally?

I mean, if you can develop a cool silverlight app, I know that Silverlight does not run on Internet Explorer 64 bit. So I guess I would have to use HTML 5 for that.

What about the other browsers and platforms and what would be the replacement technologies?

This web page gives a good idea of what browsers / Operating Systems / and Browser versions are compatable
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microso...#Compatibility

Here is a graphic from that web page that shows what browsers use SilverLight:


The first thing I noticed about this chart was all the grey "N/A" areas.  These are clearly areas that we do not have to worry about. We don't have to worry about these areas because they represent a browser and OS combination that does not exist.  For example, there are no Internet Explorer version 6 running on windows 7.

If I was to circle the areas where I am concerned with for using Silverlight, it would look like this:



And if I was to circle the areas in red where I need to find some other way of representing dynamic information (like for flash) it woould look like this:



So this makes new questions.

#1.  Does flash run on SeaMonkey, Safari, and Opera
#2.  Does flash run on the Mac OS.

What is missing in this chart is all the Linux distributions.  Does Flash run on all those or do I need to find an alternative?

Also, this chart does not even mention Internet Explorer 9 64-bit which is why I started this question in the first place.  I understand that HTML5 is supposed to be the next big thing that runs on this browser.  Will it run on other browsers?

I also wonder how big HTML 5 is going to be.  I found a white paper about this on Syncfusion's web site.

Mary Jo Foley wrote a blog about it on October 29, 2010, 7:34am PDT
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/microsoft/...s-shifted/7834




> I asked Bob Muglia, the Microsoft President in charge of the companys server and tools business, that very question and got what I consider to be the clearest answer yet about how Microsoft is evolving its Silverlight strategy.
> 
> Silverlight is our development platform for Windows Phone, he said. Silverlight also has some sweet spots in media and line-of-business applications, he said.
> 
> But when it comes to touting Silverlight as Microsofts vehicle for delivering a cross-platform runtime, our strategy has shifted, Muglia told me.
> 
> Silverlight will continue to be a cross-platform solution, working on a variety of operating system/browser platforms, going forward, he said. But HTML is the only true cross platform solution for everything, including (Apples) iOS platform, Muglia said.
> 
> Muglia said there definitely will be another version of Silverlight, and that it will be very much in line, in terms of functionality and features, as Silverlight 4, which Microsoft delivered in April of this year.


Does anyone have any insight into this?

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## gep13

Hello,

In terms of the Linux operating systems, you will have to look into something like Moonlight:

http://www.mono-project.com/Moonlight

As Silverlight will not work natively.

Gary

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## Xarzu

Thanks, Gary.

As you might know, when a web page is loaded, the browser interacts with the server and on the server side, the web site gets information about the client and that is how javascript can parse out what system the user is using.  If the user is using a Linux system, I suppose I can present the user with a moonlight website since (I guess you are saying) a silverlight website will not run on a Linux computer.  Is that right?  So a user sitting at a Linux computer going to a website using silverlight will not see anything?

Clearly, I need to know this Moonlight and know how to develop and test with it.

Will I need a separate computer with a Linux OS to test and develop my web sites?

Will Moonlinght run on all Linux distributions?

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## gep13

There is no distinction between the actual application that you create. The XAP file, and associated XAML are the same, it is just that on Windows machines Silverlight is used to render the application and on *nix machines, Moonlight is used.

As to which distros are supported by Moonlight, I am not sure.

Gary

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## MattP

As far as 64-bit browsing is concerned Silverlight 5 will have a 64-bit plugin.

The major issues I have with Silverlight at the moment is in the mobile arena.  Windows Phone 7 is built on Silverlight so there's no issue there, but iOS and Android are left out in the dark at the moment.  There's rumors of official plugins for both of those OSes and apparently Mono is working on an implementation as well.

This is a huge shame as I really like how easy it is to separate concerns with Silverlight using the MVVM pattern.  

If you're seriously looking at Silverlight I would highly recommend you check out the Prism library from patterns & practices.  The features you get from this library for building loosely coupled composite applications is amazing.

With the lack of mobile support we've currently suspended production of Enterprise apps with Silverlight and are moving towards Html 5 and knockoutjs to handle the MVVM implementation.

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## gep13

> The major issues I have with Silverlight at the moment is in the mobile arena.  Windows Phone 7 is built on Silverlight so there's no issue there, but iOS and Android are left out in the dark at the moment.


Although Silverlight is the development platform for Windows Phone 7, Siliverlight in the Internet Explorer application on the Windows Phone 7 is still not supported.

Gary

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## MattP

Correct, even with a new version of IE slated for the WP7 in the near future there is no talk of a plugin.  

I should have been clearer when mentioning WP7 as I was talking about the possibility of native apps.  With the use of Prism you can reuse most of your code when repurposing for WPF, Silverlight and WP7 projects.  A good example of that is the Stock Trader sample application that comes with Prism where they have a WPF project and Silverlight project sharing most of the code through linking.

Even with that option I still have concerns about the viability of Silverlight in the mobile arena.  I love the XAML syntax and strong binding capabilities of Silverlight and would love to have a XAML => HTML5 converter available.  

There are several up and coming JavaScript libraries aimed at making MVVM a serious possibility (backbonejs, batmanjs, knockoutjs and ria/js are the ones coming to mind at the moment).  

Out of those possibilities I like the way that knockoutjs is shaping up and pairing it with a Domain Service class with a JSON endpoint and using the knockout.mapping plugin.  Other available plugins I'm interested in are knockout.unobtrusive to get the goo out of the View and the DataJS library for OData access.

It's a tough decision to count out ria/js at the moment though as that seems to be Microsoft's answer to the other libraries.  Being able to take advantage of the metadata classes on the Domain Service class for validation would be a huge plus.

Now that Steve Sanderson the creator of knockoutjs works for Microsoft I'm hoping we'll see a merging of these 2 libraries into something wonderful.

I'd say that's enough rambling off the topic of this thread for me  :Smilie:

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## gep13

> I'd say that's enough rambling off the topic of this thread for me


Ha ha  :Smilie:  It is all good content, so nothing to worry about there  :Thumb:

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