As an multimedia developer for higher education on of the most prevalent issues I have is how to deliver video on the web to both Mac and PC users. The focus of this post is to discuss Silverlight and Flash.
Silverlight and Flash are both very similar in the end user experience. In most cases a user could not distinguish the difference between the to. Many Silverlight users also argue that the mac user experience is the same as a pc user experience and in several cases that is true. However, Silverlight has its limitations on the mac side. Silverlight version 1 will work on PowerPC macs running 10.4.8 or higher. This creates a small problem for developers of higher education because Silverlight on is not accessible according to the 508 guidelines. Silverlight 2 is accessible, however it only runs on Intel based macs running 10.4.8 or higher.
Here is a screen shot of the requirements from the Silverlight install page.
So using Silverlight could cut off a huge number of mac users. Flash in my opinion is still the better choice for delivering on demand video cross platform across the web, especially for education.
Cal Poly Pomona recently had a rep from Micrsoft and one from Adobe debate the products. Here is a link to the recording - http://video.csupomona.edu/streaming/events/FutureOfComputing.html.
Links to other comparisons
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