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By Ina Fried, 19 March 2009 12:29

NEWS

As well as announcing the arrival of Internet Explorer 8, Microsoft used the Mix 09 stage to introduce the beta version of its latest release of Silverlight, its Adobe Flash rival.

Speaking at the event, Microsoft corporate VP, Scott Guthrie, noted that so far there have been 350 million installations of Silverlight, and said Microsoft believes there are now 300,000 developers targeting the software.

The new version of the software, Silverlight 3, can be used to write programs that run outside the browser on both PCs and Macs.

On the Mac front, Microsoft also said developers will now be able to use the Eclipse software development platform to create Silverlight applications.

Microsoft enlisted the help of its customers to tout where Silverlight is being used. SVP of digital media at NBC Sports and Olympics, Perkins Miller, said his network will be using Microsoft's Silverlight to offer 720p HD streaming of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.

Guthrie also brought out Kevin McEntee, vice president of web engineering for Netflix. McEntee said Netflix started considering Silverlight about a year ago as a way to add support for the Mac and for more browsers.

"Twenty per cent of users that wanted to stream Netflix movies couldn't because we weren't on the Macintosh and we weren't on Firefox," McEntee said.

In the end, Netflix went all Silverlight for its streaming player because it allowed them to use a single player that can work across multiple browsers and computers.

Another benefit, McEntee said, is the fact the company doesn't need to do a new install each time it updates its player. In the past, updates required users to re-install the Netflix application, something that 20 per cent of users either could not or would not do. That kept the company from innovating, limiting updates to once per year.

Now, McEntee said, "every two weeks we are trying something new".

As for timing of the Silverlight 3 final release, Guthrie said the company plans for only a single beta. "We'll ship the final release later this year," he said.

Guthrie also announced a few details on Windows Azure, reiterating that the final version of the Azure platform is due to launch before the end of 2009. Among the features being added is the inclusion of Fast CGI support, which means Azure will be capable of running PHP applications in addition to those written for Microsoft's .Net.

Microsoft also unveiled a new version of its Expression web tool that includes a SuperPreview feature that allows web designers to see what their page looks like on a variety of browsers - even browsers that are on other platforms, by tapping into a cloud service. Microsoft also made a free standalone version of SuperPreview available to allow users to compare how web pages render in the three latest versions of Internet Explorer - IE 6, IE 7, and IE 8.