Microsoft's 'Everywhere' excludes Linux

Stephen Withers
Wednesday, 06 December 2006 12:24

Your IT - Home IT

Microsoft's Windows Presentation Foundation is aimed at making it easier for developers to create modern user interfaces for interactive applications whether they are Windows native or delivered through web browsers. The problem with browser-based interfaces is that not everyone uses Internet Explorer, let alone Windows itself. To this end, Microsoft has released 'Community Technology Previews' of a future product code-named WPF/E (Windows Presentation Foundation Everywhere). This browser add-on enables rendering of WPF content, but "Everywhere" doesn't include Linux.

The Windows release handles Internet Explorer 7 plus Firefox 1.5 and 2.0 on Vista, while IE 6 also works for the majority still on XP SP2. The Mac OS X version works with Safari 2.0 or Firefox 1.5.0.8. This development may help reduce the number of complaints from Mac users about sites that are designed exclusively for Windows browsers. In particular, WPF/E includes audio and video playback capability - in the longer term this may remove the need for the defunct Windows Media Player for Macintosh or Flip4Mac's WMV Windows Media Components for QuickTime, both of which are severely limited in their ability to play DRM-protected content.

From the developer's perspective, WPF offers an all-in-one alternative to (but does not completely supplant) Windows Forms, GDI+, Windows Media Player, Direct 3D and PDF. However, WPF/E does not deliver WPF's full feature set. In particular, 3D graphics are not supported.

WPF also makes it easier for designers to create user interfaces. Expression Blend (formerly Expression Interactive Designer) will provide designers with a reasonably familiar environment for creating UIs for export to Visual Studio.

The preview releases expire on 18 February 2007, by which time new - though not necessarily final - versions should be available.