I keep hearing in the community that Silverlight and WPF are dead. Why? Well, I think this is because Microsoft is moving to HTML5, CSS, and JavaScript for web apps and is providing that as an option for Windows 8 Metro apps. Because of this, Microsoft may have stopped development on Silverlight.

How does Silverlight affect WPF? It doesn’t! WPF is not a tool for writing web apps. There is a common misconception that the life span of Silverlight and WPF are tied together and if one dies, so does the other. This is far from accurate.

Silverlight != WPF

WPF and Silverlight Similarities

Sure, Silverlight and WPF have similarities. Here are some:

1. They both use XAML.
2. They share syntax and often code or XAML written in one works in the other.
3. They share some code and libraries.

WPF and Silverlight Differences

Let’s look at the differences between WPF and Silverlight. It is in these differences that it becomes obvious that WPF is just beginning a long life as an amazing API for writing rich interfaces.

WPF  (Windows Presentation Foundation)

1. It is tool for writing full-featured desktop applications that run on Windows.
2. It is a permanent part of the .NET Framework.
3. It competes with Windows Forms only for writing desktop applications.
4. Current applications are being written with WPF, such as VS 2012. Expression Studio. Etc…
5. Future versions of those applications are likely to be written in WPF.

Silverlight

1. It is a tool for web applications.
2. It requires a browser plugin.
3. It competes with Flash, Java web apps, and a straight HTML-CSS-JS solutions
4. Applications using Silverlight are going to also have HTLM5-CSS-JS solutions in future releases. Such as SharePoint and Powerview.
5. Future versions of applications using Silverlight are likely to use HTML5-CSS-JS.

So as you see their purposes are quite different and the life of WPF is not tied to Silverlight.

Let’s look at when the support for each stops.

Silverlight 5 Support Lifecycle

Silverlight is listed on Microsoft’s site as being supported until 2021. This means that you probably should be concerned right now. There is a question as to whether Silverlight 6 will be released. For these reasons, people are thinking that Silverlight has an end of life in site.

Sometimes a product is so popular it lives on, sometimes it just goes away. While Silverlight became popular, it didn’t become popular enough. The effort to make it work on all the different platforms was too hard and never completed. By the time such an effort were to succeed, HTML5 will already be out there and working on every platform. The mistake Microsoft made was not making Silverlight a free open source solution. If they had, its adoption would have been far greater. It would likely work on every platform already, and it would have succeeded to replace Flash by 2010 and would be a viable option for those who don’t think HTML5 will be the solution everyone hopes. However, this did not happen. By 2021, Silverlight may just go away.

WPF Support LifeCycle

WPF’s life is tied to the life of Windows. See this quote:

Beginning with .NET 3.5 SP1, the .NET Framework is considered a Component of the Windows OS. Components follow the Support Lifecycle policy of their parent product or platform.[1]

So that statement alone should make you feel good about the life of WPF. WPF is a permanent part of the .NET Framework and will last as long as the Windows version it is released with. Windows 8 is supported until 2023 so WPF is supported at least until 2023 too. That is two years longer than Silverlight. However, does anyone believe that the next windows versions will not include .NET Framework? I expect .NET Framework to be a primary part of Windows releases for the next decade or more.

I expect that the version of Windows that releases after 2020 will have .NET Framework and WPF will be included.

WPF is also providing windows application developers with stable frameworks, such as MVP and MVVM, for enterprises to build their software.  Companies are still moving to WPF and they still should be because Microsoft is moving to WPF.

Conclusion

Say “Yes” to choosing WPF

If you are just deciding on a solution for a Windows application’s user interface, you should choose WPF.

If you are making product road map decisions and you are looking ahead a five years or even a decade and you want to know what user interface to use, you should use WPF.

WPF has just begun what is going to be a long life that could span decades. It should be your primary choice for feature rich desktop applications. Visual Studio 2012 and other new and recent applications will use WPF and many future versions of software will run WPF.

Say “For now” to choosing Silverlight

If you are just deciding on a solution for a web application’s user interface today, you wouldn’t go wrong choosing Silverlight. You can use it for now. Let’s face it. HTML5 isn’t here yet. It is still “coming” and how long will it continue to be “coming” before it gets here?

If you are making product road map decisions and you are looking ahead a five years or even a decade and you want to know what user interface to use, you should probably not choose Silverlight or at least have an option that if Silverlight 6 is not released to go with another option, such as HTML5-CSS-JS.

Silverlight is having a mid-life crisis and yes it may die when support ends in 2021. Silverlight attempted to solve the limitations with web applications. However, while it didn’t fall short in features, it fell short in not being cross-platform. HTML5 will replace Flash, not Silverlight. And yet Silverlight is still useful today in 2012 and will probably still be useful for years. It will live for almost a decade and is still a good solution to choose until HTML5 becomes mainstream and fully supported in every browser. If Microsoft released Silverlight 6 and extends its support (which many think will not happen) then it Silverlight will remain a positive choice for writing rapid business applications.