>>Silverlight is now a developer tool for WP7, not THE solution for crossplatform development.
>>http://www.zdnet.com/blog/microsoft/microsoft-our-strategy-with-silverlight-has-shifted/7834
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>Oh, boy. This sounds so, so, oh so familiar. I think the entire Microsoft organization has a severe case of Attention Deficit Disorder, and hence they can't stay focused on any one thing long enough to make it perfect. Or if they do, they usually kill it anyways, sometimes at the height of perfection.
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>The idea of demoting SL to a Windows 7 development tool is absurd, considering how much work has gone into making it a great cross-platform web and desktop development tool. Maybe something got lost in translation in that article. Maybe I'm an eternal optimist.

If it was demoted to a Windows 7 tool that might actually be tolerable - I read the article as being demoted to Windows Phone, whose future is very much up-in-the-air (no pun intended).

You're right about it feeling familiar - you get the impression that behind the scenes it's strategically dead, but they're saying it still has some "sweet spots" to assuage the feelings of those who have invested chunks of their lives in it.

It looks to me like MS is rushing into HTML5 because it's the only area that's new enough that, if they try hard, they may be able to establish a beachhead. I haven't seen much indication in recent years that MS is capable of visionary leadership.