Microsoft have just given the somewhat badly named WPF/E the shiny new label of 'Silverlight'. What's more, they've actually made it interesting.

WPF/E was a flash competitor built around XAML, Microsoft's XML format for UI specification. Interesting, yet not really adding much more than you can already get in Flash or Apollo. Along with the new nomenclature, they've now added an embedded version of the CLR, the VM behind .NET. What this means is you should get a lot more power, support for more languages and a lot more speed.

The downsides? Cross-platform means Windows, Mac OS X and Windows Mobile (you can download beta releases of the first two). There's no Linux support, no Symbian support, no Palm support - indeed, cross-platform is provided purely by Mac support. And development tools are Windows only. Also, those who remember Internet Explorer for the Mac, HP/UX and Solaris will remember Microsoft's old habit of professing interoperability until they've won the market, then dropping it. Only time will tell if they've left this behind for the good of all involved.

On the upside, certain parts have been released under BSD-style licences, so one can only hope that the good people of Mono will fill the gap. One can even dream and imagine Microsoft may fill it - although history does not offer much hope on this score.

One can't help but think back to the days of Netscape and Constellation - make the desktop obsolete in favour of the web. We know have the raw power and enough bandwidth to make this a reality for many users, so the technology used to do this is an extremely important area in which to make one's mark. Cue the reprise of the 'browser wars', Microsoft vs. Adobe this time. May you live in interesting times indeed...