In some ways, WebGL reminds me of OpenDoc - a consortium of competitors offering the mashup model as an alternative to OS implementation while ignoring salient performance issues. In no small part because the proposal breaks the architecture of Microsoft's implementation and is coupled with a PR campaign to negate the implementation advantage Microsoft has based on the nature of their product portfolio and market segments, i.e. as an OS provider.
This isn't to say that Silverlight is the solution - but rather that the idea of giving browsers a generic ability to bypass the operating system and access the hardware is different from how Silverlight is implemented in the vast majority of cases. The Silverlight implementation is provided by the OS vendor not a third party.
It's not that WebGL doesn't have a reasonable goal, but design a sandbox without a lid and you wind up with cat turds. A system which depends on the priority which the authors of graphic card drivers assign to security and mass market hardware vendors assign to driver updates and continued support within the consumer segment doesn't seem like a plan consistent with the potential for mischief the web offers.
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In some ways, WebGL reminds me of OpenDoc - a consortium of competitors offering the mashup model as an alternative to OS implementation while ignoring salient performance issues. In no small part because the proposal breaks the architecture of Microsoft's implementation and is coupled with a PR campaign to negate the implementation advantage Microsoft has based on the nature of their product portfolio and market segments, i.e. as an OS provider.
This isn't to say that Silverlight is the solution - but rather that the idea of giving browsers a generic ability to bypass the operating system and access the hardware is different from how Silverlight is implemented in the vast majority of cases. The Silverlight implementation is provided by the OS vendor not a third party.
It's not that WebGL doesn't have a reasonable goal, but design a sandbox without a lid and you wind up with cat turds. A system which depends on the priority which the authors of graphic card drivers assign to security and mass market hardware vendors assign to driver updates and continued support within the consumer segment doesn't seem like a plan consistent with the potential for mischief the web offers.
[http://gregmaletic.wordpress.com/2006/11/12/opendoc/]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opendoc]