What is the downside of using Silverlight

Microsoft pedalled back on Silverlight as they decided that Silverlight might undermine their Windows platform. The Windows 8 platform uses many Silverlight concepts, but is strictly Windows oriented.

Apple does not allow plugins for their iPhone and iPad browsers, since plugins undermine their Apple store application model. Microsoft followed suit and Windows 8 browsers for tablets and phones will not support Silverlight as a browser plugin. To the best of my knowledge, Windows 8 tablets will continue to run Silverlight applications outside of browsers. The Windows 8 programing model, however, is very similar to Silverlight and it should be easy to convert your Silverlight application to Windows 8.

There is a lot of buzz around HTML 5 being able to do everything that Silverlight does, and, undeniably, the HTML 5 application will run on the platforms so far closed to Silverlight – iPads, iPhones, and Android systems. From my point of view, while HTML 5 is a great technology, it does not address the questions that have plagued the HTML/JavaScript technology from the outset – namely its programming paradigms are not strong enough to support coding complex business logic. Additionally, HTML 5 will not run on many of the existing desktop browsers, so if someone wants to build a website available to everyone they usually have to use HTML 4.