Microsoft shuns its own Silverlight while embracing Flash

Yesterday on the MSDN Internet Explorer blog, IE group program manager Rob Mauceri announced that Internet Explorer 10 running on both Windows RT and the Metro side of Windows 8 will now show all Flash animations, except those specifically blocked by a blacklist created and maintained by Microsoft. What about Microsoft’s own Silverlight? Nope. Silverlight sites can’t strut their stuff in Windows RT or the Metro part of Win8, no matter how hard you try.

The Silverlight developer community is, in a word, peeved.

Here’s how the controversy unfolded. Back before Windows 8 betas appeared, we were teased with hints about the demise of Flash as we know it. In September 2011, Dean Hachamovitch wrote on Steve Sinofsky’s Building Windows 8 blog:

Metro style browsing and plug-in free HTML5 … the Metro style browser in Windows 8 is as HTML5-only as possible…. Providing compatibility with legacy plug-in technologies would detract from, rather than improve, the consumer experience of browsing in the Metro style UI. Plug-in-free browsers today already deliver great experiences with well-authored HTML5 content. These experiences get even better with touch in Metro style IE.

In February 2012, Microsoft released the Windows 8 Consumer Preview. It held lots of surprises — no Start menus, for example — and the official Windows 8 Consumer Preview Product Guide for Business made ominous noises about Flash. Among other things, the guide said, “Internet Explorer is also plug-in-free. Line-of-business applications that require legacy ActiveX controls will continue to run in the desktop version of Internet Explorer. The desktop version can be easily accessed by tapping Use Desktop View in Internet Explorer.”

Since the beta of IE10 running on the Consumer Preview’s Metro side wouldn’t run Flash animations on any site, many observers figured Microsoft had followed in Apple’s footsteps and banished Flash, albeit only in Metro. Flash did, does, and will work on the old-fashioned Windows 8 desktop.

Since the ban on Flash also apparently covered Microsoft Silverlight and all forms of ActiveX controls, Silverlight developers felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of desktops had cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. They feared something terrible had happened.

I praised Microsoft at the time for getting rid of Flash. Silly me.

Then in May 2012, Microsoft unleashed the Windows 8 Release Preview. Mauceri, posting on the Building Windows 8 blog, made another surprise announcement — Flash would be allowed in Metro IE10, but only on sites listed in a Microsoft-controlled Compatibility View (CV) whitelist of approved sites:

We believe that having more sites “just work” in the Metro style browser improves the experience for consumers and businesses alike. As a practical matter, the primary device you walk around with should play the web content on sites you rely on. Otherwise, the device is just a companion to a PC. Some popular websites require Adobe Flash and do not offer HTML5 alternatives, and this change to the product reflects the feedback that we’ve heard from customers about their experience with sites that do not offer an HTML5-only experience for Metro style IE. For example, try pbskids.org on an iPad. Some workforce solutions, like Beeline, require Flash. Some financial management sites, like [Morgan Stanley’s benefitaccess.com], require Flash. And some sites still deliver their best experience with Flash, such as youtube.com.

We soon discovered that Microsoft had contracted with Adobe to build a version of Flash inside IE — much the same as Google worked with Adobe to build a version of Flash inside Chrome.

In June 2012, Microsoft told Web developers with Flash content that they could get their sites added to the CV whitelist, with a caveat:

We place sites with Flash content on this list if doing so delivers the best user experience in Metro style IE with those sites. For example, how responsive is the content to touch? Does it work well with the onscreen keyboard? Is it battery-life friendly? Do visual prompts comply with the Metro style user experience guidelines? Sites that rely on capabilities that are not supported within the Metro style experience, for example, Flash rollover events and P2P functionality, and don’t degrade gracefully in their absence are better off running in IE with Flash on the desktop. “

Developers petitioned Microsoft to have their sites added to the whitelist; ultimately thousands of sites were added. Later in June, Microsoft published details on how to manually add your own list of sites. Doing so wouldn’t put the sites on Microsoft’s whitelist, but at least you could manually get Flash to run in specific sites on your machines, if you were sufficiently adept to edit a text file.

Then the rubber hit the road. Windows 8 and Windows RT escaped into the wild, and many people (at least many people I know) started complaining. Why wouldn’t (insert site name here) work with the Surface RT? Why would (some other site) work with IE on the desktop, but wouldn’t work with IE on the Metro side. I didn’t hear complaints about big-name sites — they were all covered by the CV whitelist and worked fine from day one — but I heard it loud and clear from people who use Flash-enabled sites for work, play Flash games on Facebook, or have kids who like to play Web-based games in general. Some sites worked, some didn’t, and it was nigh on impossible to know in advance which would make the CV cut.

That’s where things stood until yesterday afternoon, when Maucieri announced on the IE blog, quite unexpectedly:

Starting tomorrow, we are updating Internet Explorer 10 in Windows 8 and Windows RT to enable Flash content to run by default… As we have seen through testing over the past several months, the vast majority of sites with Flash content are now compatible with the Windows experience for touch, performance, and battery life… We believe having more sites “just work” in IE10 improves the experience for consumers, businesses, and developers. As a practical matter, the primary device you walk around with should give you access to all the Web content on the sites you rely on. Otherwise, the device is just a companion to a PC. Because some popular Web sites require Adobe Flash and do not offer HTML5 alternatives, Adobe and Microsoft continue to work together closely to deliver a Flash Player optimized for the Windows experience.

The announcement contains two more surprises. First, Microsoft pulled an about-face and the CV list has suddenly changed from a whitelist to a blacklist: When IE10 running under Windows RT or Win8 Metro hits a Flash animation on a site that’s included in the CV list, IE will block playing the Flash animation. (Note that there’s no analogous blacklist for IE running on the old-fashioned Win8 desktop.) Second, the change will be implemented through Windows Update — although, as I write this, it isn’t showing on the Windows Update list.

Microsoft also published a detailed MSDN article for site developers that fleshes out two more surprises. First, Microsoft and Microsoft alone controls which sites go on the CV blacklist. Second, “This behavior change requires Internet Explorer 10 to be fully patched with all available security updates.” Given the context, it isn’t clear if that’s an ongoing requirement for IE to be updated in order for Flash to run or if it’s a one-time requirement to get IE changed to the blacklist system. Time will tell.

If you’re a Silverlight fan, your hopes have just been dashed once again. Microsoft didn’t even mention Silverlight in its voluminous posts resurrecting Flash. Not once. As recently as December 2010, Microsoft was actively courting developers susceptible to Silverlight proselytizing. But by May 2011, Silverlight lost its leader and became a dirty word in Redmond’s ivy-covered halls.

If you’re still anticipating a Silverlight revival, I hate to break the bad news: Silverlight’s as dead as any abandoned Microsoft technology. The fact that Microsoft just had a Flash epiphany, and didn’t even acknowledge its own developers, speaks volumes.