Apparently Microsoft only sees the light if you are running the Windows operating system. Silverlight, their way to deliver feature-rich web content, will at first glance only run on a "Silverlight-compatible" Windows operating system and browser. After doing some digging (and non-working links), I could find that Mac OS 10 is supported for Firefox and Safari, and Linux users are referred to Novell for Firefox support.
I was looking into "Expression Web" that a friend is using, and as I found www.microsoft.com/expression I was told to install the latest version of Silverlight. Otherwise I could not view all the features on that page.
I am disappointed but not really surprised that Microsoft locks people out of their web content due to their web design. I have similar concerns when web designers choose to use Flash menus and leave no alternatives to navigate the site.
If as a web developer you truly want as many people visiting the site, then don't make your visitors jump hoops. Many people will just click away and not come back.

No comments