[wiggums]

himbo:
where's your market research? By going with Intel only machines, they are leaving alot, i mean ALOT of PPC users out. The future is obviously going to be Intel machines(which have been around for what, four years already, Netflix has been around for four times as long). Please state some less obvious points. That being said, I could care less as i can't stand sitting in front of computer watching movies, that's just not for me. i'll keep my dvd's coming and use appletv for everything else.

[byronkim]

Add my vote to the awesome, goodness that is boxee...so does this open the door to the possibility of a Silverlight/Netflix implementation on ATV?

[Schneb]

Well, I for one will be glad NOT to have to boot into Windows XP on my Intel iMac just to watch a movie.

[albertw]

Before you start celebrating - check out the choices. Seven Brides for Seven Brothers? Yeah, I'm dying to see that.

[wardoggie]

Schneb said:

Well, I for one will be glad NOT to have to boot into Windows XP on my Intel iMac just to watch a movie.

Me too.

I've resisted installing Silveright because I didn't see a need for it. This will do it, though.

[Grapho]

[quote name='Peter Cohen']
>

Casademike said:

> If you are supporting the mac...support the mac. Don't make us install some MS garbage.

Yeah, not like Microsoft is the largest third-party software publisher for the Mac or anything.

Oh, wait...

Or, for that matter, that Microsoft's Mac Silverlight development team includes key people from Apple's own QuickTime team.

No, it's got the Microsoft label on it, therefore it carries the TAINT of the DEVIL. It's UNCLEAN!!!

LOL!

You are right Petar, but still, I don't know why a feel resistant to install Silverlight on my Mac, and it's plain silly on my part but I guess since I am not thrilled with Flash and it's security track record, I am hesitant on using MS technology that has been abysmal as far as security flaws. Not that I am aware of any problem, but I can just read the headline.

[wardoggie]

The movie selection is small, but it's growing and there are some great recent TV shows available. I like the service and it doesn't cost extra, so why NOT start celebrating?

[mac_savant]

What bugs me about Microsoft and the Silverlight evolution is that it smells like the Microsoft we love to hate.

Why did they build a 1.0 version of Silverlight for PPC if they weren't going to build a 2.0 version?

I just have this bad feeling that come version 3.0 or 4.0, after they've captured a large amount out the multimedia space with their proprietary DRM, they'll conveniently announce that they no longer support the Mac (any Mac) and we now need to switch to Silverlight Enhanced/Plus/Super/Vista (or whatever) which only runs on Windows.

I've been holding my nose ever since I couldn't watch the Olympics content on the web because my G5 screamer isn't up to their standards.

[TrixieKQ]

I love Seven Brides for Seven Brothers!

Trivia for y'all. Remember Julie Newmar, one of the Catwoman actresses from the Batman and Robin TV series? She's one of the kidnapped brides. (I know that's off topic, sorry folks.)

[Casademike]

@ Peter - actually it's not an "MS taint of the devil" thing. I am a little more pragmatic than that.



The deeper issue with Silverlight is primarily two things:

1) MS desire to dominate everything. This is a direct competitor to Flash. They only made it completely platform agnostic because it's the only way they could compete with Flash. They can't stand to let another software company have anything. Beyond that, their commitment to product niches often flails in the wind. How long will Silverlight be around? Will we make it to version 3 or 4 if people don't adopt? They have tried to buy penetration (like with the Olympics coverage) and not gotten very far. In fact the network dropped Silverlight right after the Olympics were over.

2) I work in a web and multi-media shop. We are not really looking for yet another technology that we have to adopt and author for - further splitting the audience. If anything we would really like to see the utopian, platform agnostic web standards dream become a reality. Yes we author in Flash and yes you can argue Silverlight has some advantages over Flash - but quite frankly, we just don't want to go there.

I don't want to encourage Microsoft's bad web behavior which leads to further fragmentation on the web and more headaches for us web developers. I don't want my machine being "one more installed user" on their charts - that will just encourage them to continue their plight - and give them more ammo to push other companies to adopt.

I actually like MS - I use office every day. It's a great app. I also use Windows (as little as I can) - it's neccesarry in my work world. So it's not a MS is unclean thing as much as - support them in the areas they belong and not in the areas they don't.

Hope that clarifies my stance a little.

[Schneb]

I personally think that Peter was a bit too harsh in his reply. But thanks for clarifying your point. Perhaps this would have been a better post to begin with?

[Casademike]

You are right. But I have a bad cold and it was early on Monday morning - what can I say??? ;-)

[ImageMakers]

I don't buy the theory that netflix Mac members are primarily Intel users as a result of 'new technology', 'early adopters', or any other canned guess. Netflix is a business and businesses will interpret the statistics to fit the need. My household has 5 operational Macs and one of those is an Intel machine. Netflix will remain absent in this house until they support my Dual G5 tower. It is still the primary machine. Bottom line: There are many, many PPC users out there. By failing to support this part of the market, Netflix has cut it's potential user base dramatically. Not good marketing in my judgement.

[folklore]

ImageMakers said:

Bottom line: There are many, many PPC users out there. By failing to support this part of the market, Netflix has cut it's potential user base dramatically. Not good marketing in my judgement.

Ah, but how many PPC users are Netflix subscribers? That's what makes the decision, and I'd bet that neither you nor I really have any idea how many PPC users are Netflix subscribers. Clearly, there weren't enough PPC Mac users to make finding a different video platform worth it. Basically, the work required to support the dead-end PPC Macs just wasn't worth the effort. This is especially true since the PPC user base will only diminish over time as those users buy new Macs.

Does that suck for PPC Netflix subscribers today? Yep. Doesn't change the dollars and sense of it, though.