>Please see my other post. Some high ranking managers at Microsoft say Silverlight is alive and well. They say people got the wrong impression at the last PDC.

Well, I agree Silverlight is alive, it's still evolving. Just as VFP evolved after VFP 8.0. I wouldn't be surprised if there is a Silverlight 6.0 after 5.0 is released. Aside from Silverlight evolving, what matters is how Microsoft uses it within tools and platform strategy, and how developers/businesses use it going forward. It's clear to me that limited browser plug-ins are not the future of most web development, and that while Silverlight may evolve, it will be used less and be within less scenarios, products, etc.

LightSwitch will be released soon, and generates Silverlight based screens. I'd bet that LightSwitch 2.0 will generate HTML5 based screens, maybe keeping Silverlight as well for backward compatibility. I expect Windows Phone will follow Windows 8, which excludes Silverlight and instead focuses on HTML5. I expect MS will have tools that help the creating of HTML5 forms/apps, so you don't have to hand-code those web pages (like ASP.NET controls do).

IMO, Silverlight will become like VFP, it's there for those who want it for whatever they want to do with it, but not part of the Microsoft platform strategy.