It's looking very much like Microsoft is slowly pulling out from the Silverlight development business. Microsoft, which released Silverlight 5 a year ago, has now taken down Silverlight.net, which has served as a resource for developers who wanted to work with the web-based video streaming tools.
ZDNet.com notes that the Silverlight.net URL now directs people to a page on Microsoft's MSDN site. However, that move has caused a number of links that offer information and discussions surrounding Silverlight to become broken.
In a statement, Microsoft admitted that it had moved Silverlight.net to MSDN in late October. It also noted the broken URL links, adding, "We apologize for any inconvenience and we’re working to resolve these issues for our customers."
The big question is, will Microsoft continue development of Silverlight past version 5? Microsoft has yet to comment on the future of the tools. ZDNet.com reports that Microsoft has only said:
The consolidation of this content does not impact Microsoft’s Silverlight offering. We released Silverlight 5 in December 2011 and we’ve committed to supporting Silverlight into the year 2021.
Of course, "support" is not the same thing as "future additions and improvements". At the moment, we would not place any bets on Microsoft releasing Silverlight 6.
Source: ZDNet.com | Image via Microsoft
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