If WPF died, would anybody notice?

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+3 Q:

If WPF died, would anybody notice?

I just came across Tim Anderson's latest blog entry about MS' future regarding HTML5, Silverlight, WPF, and wonder, where is this all going.

My personal experience is that I have never seen a WPF application, got a project enquiry re WPF only once, and have no idea where SL is actually used.

To avoid the risk of having this question closed (I find it very interesting technologically) due to "subjectivity", I ask:

Are there any big and useful applications out there in WPF or SL that would get hurt?

Do you work on a WPF/SL application that would be affected by further uncertainty concerning the future of these platforms?

+11 A:

As far as I know (parts of) Visual Studio 2010 are implemented using WPF.

M4N 2010-09-09 12:35:07

If I am not mistaken, it's the whole VS 2010 interface. http://www.microsoftpdc.com/2009/CL09

Jesse 2010-09-09 14:05:59

+10 A:

Yes. I've released WPF and Silverlight applications. People would most definitely notice if those went away.

Companies like Lab49 and Infusion are also using WPF heavily in Surface based applications.

Without Silverlight, you wouldn't have watched any streaming coverage of the Olympics online for the past several years. You also would lose your Netflix streaming ability.

Not only that...but you would lose Expression Studio and Visual Studio 2010 as well (both written in WPF).

(not to mention the whole Windows Phone 7 story is built around the use of Silverlight)

Justin Niessner 2010-09-09 12:35:39

Silverlight was used for Beijing Olympics 2 years ago as part of a commercial deal. Netflix moved to Silverlight, and infamously annoyed a lot of users in the process (this was a very public failure). VS2010 would be just fine without it (as have all the previous versions) and Expression's popularity is marginal at best (for amusement, it's own website used Flash for a long time). I think the poster is right to question it - I actually LIKE the platform, but I think it's relevance is questionable (as is that of Java in browsers and, increasingly, Flash).

Iain Collins 2010-09-09 12:57:35

* I'd add that I think WFP itself has a longer self life and more relevance than Silverlight (which, as I say, I also like, but I think is of limited value at present) but how relevant it is depends on your specific situation. I do agree @emddudley that WPF is a significant and welcome improvement and think it's likely to be more relevant for some time to come.

Iain Collins 2010-09-09 13:05:51

people complained about SL on netflix at first - but I haven't seen a complaint in months

qntmfred 2010-09-09 13:33:59

I personally have not used Netflix streaming because of Silverlight. Now, since I'm not currently a Netflix customer, they might not hear from me much, but that is losing them my business. How much of the quieting down is because people have started using Silverlight, and how much that they just gave up on Netflix?

Brian Campbell 2010-09-09 13:43:11

I don't get the Netflix thing at all. I was overjoyed by the switch -- far superior quality and stability over the old Windows Media-based player, not to mention cross-platform compatibility.

Jay 2010-09-09 13:46:19

+3 A:

See this http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7837/what-real-world-wpf-applications-are-out-there

And note that Windows Phone 7 makes heavy use of Silverlight.

CommanderZ 2010-09-09 12:41:49

Does Windows Phone 7 exist yet, or is that still vaporware?

Brian Campbell 2010-09-09 13:53:04

Release date is October 11th, I believe.

mdm20 2010-09-09 14:10:00

Netflix now uses SilverLight for its "Watch Instantly on Your PC", but users weren't particularly happy with the change. That's the only reason in the last couple of years that I've had to install SilverLight or have seen WPF outside of Visual Studio.

Mike 2010-09-09 12:42:07

+2 A:

According to this:
Worldwide, over 1 in 4 computers (over 25%) has Silverlight installed.
and
more people have Silverlight installed than the US population own cars.

I'm guessing people don't go around installing useless add-ins, and that there aren't so many web-developers in the US to account for all these installations

Oren A 2010-09-09 12:42:20

Well, I recall installing Silverlight, but I don't recall really desperately needing it...

teukkam 2010-09-09 12:45:38

Did you ever **desperately** needed Flash?

Oren A 2010-09-09 12:51:19

I think it's fair to say that is much more so of Flash than Silverlight (and I tend to prefer Silverlight). Flash is widely used (even if in cases where it's not really needed) but implementations of content in Silverlight are still rare. PS: Regarding the "facts" in that article, it doesn't indicate where any of that information comes from (there are no sources cited at all).

Iain Collins 2010-09-09 13:09:31

Could be rephrased: did you install SilverLight just because it came with Windows Update, or because a website asked you to?

snemarch 2010-09-09 13:12:03

I guarantee the 1 in 4 usage of SilverLight is through Vista and Windows 7 having SilverLight built-in, and it being an automatic update for Windows XP. So it's not a question of people installing useless addons at all. SilverLight is also normally installed by good sys admins on Windows images (I worked for a 5000+ person organisation that included it).

Alex 2010-09-09 13:36:27

I installed both Silverlight and Flash because a website asked me to. I have encountered a number of web applications now that use it, some with better implementations than others. Keep in mind that these technologies are young. Flash is old as the hills by comparison. It has had time to gain market share, and despite it's security flaws appears to be keeping that share quite well. I personally like WPF and SL quite a bit, and find them very flexible and easy to pick up.

OffApps Cory 2010-09-09 20:53:05

Yahoo Messenger is going to be in WPF - http://www.zdnet.com/blog/stewart/finally-wpf-yahoo-messenger-available-for-preview/661

I've worked for several large companies using WPF for client facing applications.

I don't see it disappearing anytime soon.

Queso 2010-09-09 12:51:37

Yahoo messenger is no longer WPF: http://www.ymessengerblog.com/blog/2008/10/24/yahoo-messenger-for-vista-version-is-no-longer-available/

Wallstreet Programmer 2010-09-09 18:19:50

ugh - I thought I was in touch

Queso 2010-09-10 13:12:01

i am in a project which is a LOB application and based upon the concept Dynamic UI , we use havily WPF templating system as well as Data Binding Feature along with CAL and MVVM.

I just love the way WPF data binding works. It really help us to create such an Application very fastly.

i won't agree WPF is going to die SOONER Or LATER.

saurabh 2010-09-09 13:21:26

Check visual control vendors like Telerik, DevExpress, ... They all have extensive WPF and Silverlight libraries, so there probably is lots of developers creating WPF and/or Silverlight apps.

zendar 2010-09-09 13:26:48

+3 A:

wpf is immortal...

Luiscencio 2010-09-09 13:39:33

Currently I'm working for an international GIS company and we have a C# 2.0 project that we're recreating as a WPF Browser Application. We can't do a regular web app in ASP.Net because of custom mapping controls we've had for almost 15 years. The speed and control WPF gives us in the browser is making this much easer to develop/maintain. Also we don't have to worry about particular browsers because the XBAP only runs in IE (or in browsers that have some sort of "IE Tab" extension).

Silverlight and WPF seem to be used a lot in business to business applications and are not normally public facing because of the browser limitations.

Corey Ogburn 2010-09-09 17:11:07

ansaurus

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If WPF died, would anybody notice?

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