That is BS. MS had Silverlight out at teh same time they had a Windows version out.

If MS charges nothing for it then Apple will get 30% of zero. As usual, Ballmer is trying to give it a negative spin.

I find it incredibly hypocritical that Ballmer, who runs Microsoft that charges per-client licenses to hook up to their servers, to question Apple's economic motives. A company that sells server software with unlimited clients.

The man truly has no sense of just how credibility-challenged he sounds whenever he speaks about Apple or its products. Does he really think the rest of the world is so stupid?

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Eric

"I wrote an ad for Apple Computer: 'Macintosh - We might not get everything right, but at least we knew the century was going to end." - Douglas Adams

yeah...I mean, why would Ballmer do something stupid like say "I'm going to withhold commenting until I've had a chance to look at the details"

I really don't think that it's because flash is so much more bloated. Something i read in the last few days indicated that it's because the mobile version of flash player in essence sucks, and they would need to develop a totally new version to run on the iphone. not, of course, that i'm saying they shouldn't be doing this, but that's the reasoning from what i understand.

"The company said this week that Silverlight is logging about 1.5 million downloads per day, which includes downloads spurred by Microsoft running Silverlight on its own Web sites and for company Webcasts."

Thank you MacWorld for at least trying to put some of those downloads in perspective. How many of those downloads were from users that said "wow, I really want to see what that Silverlight can do so let me go out and download it" vs those that are presented with a "Install Silverlight" button on a website and just click it not having any idea what they are doing. Microsoft is basically trying to tie anything and everything they can in to Silverlight so users must install it : Microsoft Update site (in beta now), upcoming Olympic coverage, MIX presentations, etc...

One particular annoying instance is with MediaSite. Our company uses MediaSite for online presentations and it is horrible on a Mac. They announced a huge improvement for Macs with their new version which requires Silverlight. However to even get more info on the new version requires you to install Silverlight just to see what Silverlight can do! Aaargh. It would be much better to let people know what it can do and THEN give them the option of installing it if it seems to be something useful.

I just do not like the idea of Microsoft using tricks and tie-ins to claim Silverlight download numbers. The last thing I want is yet one more thing running on user machines. Oh, and if you thought Flash ads were bad, just wait till Silverlight get enough market penetration and they unleash those. At least the AdBlock devs will have some job security out of it.

There is always that little known site that is very popular in the summer months - http://www.mlb.com

Hey, Ballmer...

Apparently it's hard to stretch for those pieces of FUD sometimes, huh?