Microsoft’s Flash alternative has a new name: Silverlight. Undoubtedly a radical shift in naming conventions. Back in 2005, Microsoft renamed Avalon to Windows Presentation Foundation, and I noted that:

These new names seem to be deliberately chosen to be forgettable.

Now we have memorable back. Interesting.

The name may be there, but the product is still in preview; the latest release remains the February CTP, with full release promised before July 2007. The emphasis is on video and vector graphics; there’ s no common language runtime implementation yet. You can write Silverlight code in JavaScript. It’s cross-platform, but currently only supports Windows and Mac; no device support yet. See the faq here for more information; and a useful summary from Tim Sneath who says there is big Silverlight news to come at Mix07.