O’Reilly: Inside RIA

Next in my series describing my implementation of Microsoft DRM I will detail how I refined the work flow to a single process. This process is portable, can be run on any machine, so it negates the need to...

In my previous article I talked about setting up an installation of Microsoft DRM, and some of the pitfalls encountered with the base set up. In this article I will detail how I refined that process. As I described previously,...

When I worked at Music Choice - almost five years ago - one of my responsibilities was to architect our implementation of Microsoft DRM. In fact my very first day with the company my boss, Stu who was and still...

Mike Downey joins us to discuss the competition between Microsoft Silverlight and Adobe Flash. Prior to working for Microsoft as a Silverlight Evangelist he worked for Adobe for 9 years with the Flash Platform. Joining us on the panel...

Last week, I discussed how to see your installed 32-bit ODBC drivers on 64-bit Windows. I'd like to talk a bit more about why 32 -bit ODBC drivers, especially tha Microsoft Access Jet Driver, doesn't work by default on Internet...

We all know that Microsoft Access is not the right choice for enterprise databases. But there's no doubt that sometimes it is the right choice. Whether it's a quick prototype or an application that needs to have roughly the same...

In fine tradition, Microsoft Australia hosted its version of the annual MIX event in Sydney. The conference, aptly named REMIX, featured the upcoming Silverlight 3, SketchFlow and Blend 3 products, though, much to my chagrin, somewhat superficially.

It may surprise you to know that the Pacific region has its fair share of web talent. Having just been surrounded by most of them for the past couple of days, I can attest to the fact. This year was my first WebDU, and I'm still tingling.

The jets and sharks, Hatfields and McCoys, Philadelphia Eagles and New York Giants, Adobe and Microsoft. Now several years in the making, the Adobe - Microsoft rivalry is gearing up. Especially with the anticipated new release of Silverlight 3 and Flex 4. As any seasoned Flex veteran will tell you, Adobe is the defacto standard for Rich Internet Applications. When asked about interest in Silverlight, the response may vary, but usually ends in “I haven’t actually spent a lot of time [or tried] it.” A product of Microsoft, Silverlight is. But as professionals in the RIA industry it is a good thing to be open minded. After all, as hard as it is to admit, Flash isn’t always the best tool for the job.

As they headed home from Las Vegas last Friday, the roughly 2000 designers and developers -- not to mention Microsoft employees -- returning from the three-day MIX09 web conference in Las Vegas had plenty to consider. For O'Reilly author and Silverlight MVP John Papa, the big news was the support for "out of browser" and line of business applications announced for Silverlight 3. For Vertigo developer Jon Galloway, the SketchFlow designer planned for Expression Blend 3 and demoed for the first time at MIX, promises to revolutionize the way designers prototype their user interactions. As for Scott Guthrie, VP of the Microsoft's Developer Division, reflecting on his keynote at an after hours reception, he was just pleased that MIX09 had come together without the "fire drill" of years past.

Microsoft has officially released IE8. You can download it from http://www.microsoft.com/windows/internet-explorer/default.aspx. It is supposed to be faster, easier and more secure. I'm downloading it at this very moment to test it out.

Microsoft Silverlight 2 has been officially released. You can download the latest at http://www.microsoft.com/silverlight/.

Yesterday Microsoft released IE 8 Beta 2. It's likely the most anticipated release of the browser to date, for developers anyway. This is because they've done a lot to support CSS 2.1 and HTML 5 standards, which is everyone agrees is a good thing. It might not be perfect yet but they seem to be making good progress.

The folks developing JavaFX have taken the rather pragmatic approach of writing plug-ins to Adobe's CS3 products rather than create their own design tools ... does that neutralize one of Adobe's and Microsoft's most important competitive advantages?

Microsoft recently announced demos of two exciting Ruby on Rails developments. The first is a Silverlight application integrated with Ruby on Rails and the second is a demo of Microsoft's .NET Rails implementation, somewhat weirdly named "IronRuby." In this entry we'll discuss the announcement, Microsoft's implementation of Rails, and provide some resources for getting started in your own Rails education.

Microsoft announced support for SWF in its next version of Silverlight. Does this spell trouble for Adobe?

The three biggest names in the RIA world have to be Microsoft (with Silverlight and .NET), Adobe (with the Flash Player and ColdFusion), and Sun (with Java and JavaFX). It wouldn't be a stretch to say that a vast majority of all RIA's are powered by one of these technologies. In the past these companies and their respective products have been closed. Recently, a change in heart has begun to take shape. All three of these companies are now embracing the open source philosophy in their specific RIA strategy.