Comments on: Flex vs Silverlight (in my eyes)

By: Craig Jarman

Craig Jarman — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 12:17:33 +0000

I’ve worked extensively with both Flex and .NET/WPF. Recently, when faced with the decision of which to go with I was itching to go with SL. But I couldn’t do it. SL strikes me a more powerful. As I use a .Net backend anyway, the development of the client would be easier. Yet still I opted for Flex over SL. Why? Primarly due to the broader install base of Flash.
I fully expect SL to catch up in this regard. But Flex is not standing still either. With Flex 4 the flexability for skinning an application is greatly improved. Textual layout will also be far superior (courtesy of the InDesign team). So really its neck and neck. By the time SL has the penetration, Flex 4 will be here. And from what I’ve seen of Flex 4, its a lot more like WPF.
As a developer I prefer C# and VS to AS and Flex Builder. But in the end, given that I was happy to work with limited skinnabiliy of Flex, it was a better option.
I think this debate will be even more difficult in a years time when we will be comparing Flex 4 (requiring FP 10) and a more mature/widespread SL.
So, with enough time and money, SL makes for good looking app. Flex you need to work with what you’ve got – for now anyway. FB4 will see Flex catch up to SL in this regard.

Because the out-of-the-box look and feel of Flex surpasses that of Silverlight If SL were more

By: Dee Sadler

Dee Sadler — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 22:49:21 +0000

This reminds me of a Mac vs. PC debate. As a Mac user, I’d NEVER use a program made only for the PC, even though like many Mac users, I have Vista loaded on the PC side of my Mac. Microsoft is a cheap imitation, plain and simple, and they just continue to imitate and no come close. They will never rule my world and there are more and more people who embrace Macs every day. Especially developers.

My opinion, and said from a Mac lover and an Adobe Instructor, Adobe User Group manager and Adobe Community Expert. So am I bias, you bet, but the initial choice was mine to become biased thanks to Microsoft, who I would picket every day if I thought they deserved my time. They SUCK! Windows 7… please. Silverlight.. please. Experssions Web, whatever. I’d rather have a text editor any day than a Microsoft product.

HAHAHAHA
Just thought I’d fuel the fire for some hard core MS folk. They, in their ignorance of other products get more riled up than us Mac folk. Watch. LOL

By: Anthony Tietjen

Anthony Tietjen — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 18:38:56 +0000

Go to Dice.com and search just titles for Flex, and then do a search for Silverlight. You should see that Flex has a lot more results than a search for Silverlight.

By: Terrell

Terrell — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 21:59:11 +0000

Until Silverlight can run smoothly on Linux then I can’t see how anyone can consider using it. I was highly upset about the Olympic streaming on NBC this year because I had to load up a virtual Windows XP just to view the videos.

By: Steve

Steve — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 02:11:16 +0000

I think the release of SL 2.0 included support for building Silverlight applications with Eclipse.

MS released SL too quickly – ie. it still has ‘blurry text’ – that itself is horrible – why would I release a program with hard to read type in 2008?

Wierd.

Thanks for the write up!

By: Jane Carter

Jane Carter — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 23:26:44 +0000

We need to decide whether to use SL or Flash for our Prague hotel website.

What I find extraordinary is that there seem to be no reliable stats on browser penetration either for Flash or Silverlight. Adobe publishes statistics for Flash and MS publishes the same for SL. I haven’t found anything which is credible and independent. Yet this goes to the heart of whether SL is ever going to be worth using. Couldn’t someone produce a time graph showing uptake so we could estimate when (if ever) SL is going to be worth using?

Incidentally, I have SL installed on FF 3.0.4. Some SL sites give an error message and say it isn’t properly installed. ????

By: Vusi

Vusi — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 20:35:04 +0000

i’ve just had a lengthy debate with one of my coleagues about this subject;

it turns out that flash is slightly slower than silverlight in processing and Marshalling data.

it think its so much easier accessing and creating more “advanced” objects like custom, controls, events, extended classes, skins etc… in FLEX.

my only outcry now would be for ADOBE to create more powerful intellisence!!!

By: Mohammad Taghi Karimi

Mohammad Taghi Karimi — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 14:56:31 +0000

you know i think both of them are good enough
i’ve been microsoft user for over 10 years and i’ve been programming over 6 years

i was jump jump and jump over and over on all programming languages and know i just belive something that is C++ and done

know i recommend that flex coz its easy to use and …
but i recommend silverlight coz its i think have smaller size

no really both of them good and useful but you must chose what you want to do what you want to learn and …

I Love Adobe and Microsoft But Now Microsoft Going To A Deap Shit

If You Want Earn Money = Microsoft
If You Want Earn Money , Be Useful = Adobe , Apple

By: Rollin Shultz

Rollin Shultz — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 16:33:55 +0000

Ok Neil when it comes to the graphics of tha app ui remember Silverlight is just now emerging from infancy. You will soon see many custom skins available for your work environment. If you have seen Expression Blend 2.5 the ui is very pleasant to use.
When it comes to the apps you develop of course the look is up to you so it is totally customizable. As Steve mentioned earlier even though Adobe IDEs have come a long way. (Dreamweaver CS3 has an almost visual studio feel to it.) There is no comparison to intellisense and the .net IDE.
Keep your eye on Silverlight if it gets the awesome support it appears it will it will soon become a formidable looking as well as performing tool.
Finally does it matter if it looks better than flash and should you care if you are developing for a non windows host environment? I believe if you are developing for windows hosting environments you will want to use it because it is yet another good tool for VS.net and using it will come natural plus you will see your developing skills evolve with the product.

By: Steve Pedvin

Steve Pedvin — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 06:46:17 +0000

Hi, here is my 2 cents. I spent the good part of 9 months, 2 years ago leaning Flex. At the time I did find it neat, specialy when compared to the rubbish mix-mash of ajax.

However one thing that I came to realise is that if you must do any serious processing then the flash player runtime is dog slow. This wasnt due to bad programming as I am sure that I will be accused of – LOL, but rather bad performance in the Flash (not Flex’s fault – I know).

Also I found the IDE (Eclipse) very basic (no intellisence / autocomplete etc). Really is was little more than notepad with a dubugger and compiler. Also drag & drop was unusable, the only real way was manually editing the layout markup.

I find the UI elements displayed by the flash player to look very unappealing when compared to a windows desktop program. They look sort of blured, like some kid has designed them in windows paintbrush.

I hope that Silverlight is capable of creating better looking and performing applications than ones made using Flex. Ultimately I hope that they are as fast as a real windows desktop program and look as sharp as one.

Steve Pedvin