Maybe I’m completely missing the boat here, but Microsoft’s new Silverlight seems to be little more than a cheesy Flash knock-off, minus the standards, supporting technologies, install base, and developer community.

What the heck is Microsoft thinking? Why didn’t they just buy Macromedia like the rumor mill has been threatening for the last half a dozen years? For that matter, why didn’t they release it bundled with Vista so that there would at least be an instant user base?

Unless Redmond does something sneaky, like pushing out Silverlight in automatic service packs, I just don’t see it achieving any market penetration for a long time.. if ever.