Not willing to concede the market to Adobe, Microsoft has released a new major version of its Silverlight web browser plug-in. Among the new features in version 3.0 are 3D support, GPU acceleration, support for H.264 and AAC encoding, deep linking, image and text improvements and more. The official launch of Silverlight 3 is scheduled for tomorrow, but the actual bits are available now from Microsoft’s website.

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Do we want it?

It may be Microsoft, but I'd love one less Adobe based standard.

Yes we do! :)
By the way, here's an example of Smooth Streaming: http://www.iis.net/media/experiencesmoothstreaming . It just works without having to wait for some seconds (compared to YouTube's HD).

This actually sounds good, I want to see it in action.

I guess you want Adobe running the show?

Smooth Streaming looks awesome and less buggy than Flash-based video services at first instance. Having it running on third party production-level web services will be the real test however.

I suppose my 1 MEG connction won't stream HD? I have the kit. not the connection, :(

h.264 support could be a big improvement for Netflix which requires Silverlight.

WE? We who?
Being a minimalist; not me!

We haven't met anybody who needs Silverlight, but Microsoft certainly needs us to have it, or they wouldn't be falling all over themselves trying to get it on our machines... I don't suppose I even know what it does.

Loving it!

Don't know why needed? or what it is? There's plenty of such information available if you do a simple "Gurgle" search or a Windows Search. Then the pick that top options.

And i'll even go one better and just give you the search terms as well why need silverlight

Apparently needed for Netflix and some of the streaming video presentations of Beijing Olympics and Presidential Olympics. I'd guess the number of things needing it (or at least supporting it) will start increasing rapidly now that it's out. We can both keep "Gurgling" to find out more as it happens!

It's a little bizarre that a "new" version isn't IE8 64-bit compatible. Guess I DON'T need it after all.

Yeah why don't you go to Firefox or Opera with their great 64 bit capabilities...

OH WAIT.

will this help or hurt dial up users....Oh that's right there isn't any dial up users anymore....

what does it even do...?

Opera has 64bit versions for Linux and FreeBSD. And since FF is opensource you can build your own 64bit version.

There are still dial up users out there too, my parents are an example. They live 6 miles north of a town of 2000 and can't get DSL. Sure they could get satellite, but it would be pretty terrible speeds for a lot of money per month.

It is obvious that Microsoft always want to monopolize the PC market by destroying other companies hat join the market. Many new companies are innovative and come up with new sofware/technology that customers try and then love. When this happens, Microsoft responds by producing similar thing and offering for free just to destroy the new company(Do they offer office for free? No, b/c there is no competitor). Microsoft is completely against innovation and new ideas brought up by other alternative companies. They destroyed the first graphical browser Netscape Navigator, Wordperfect, Google (next target) and many other software. I think it is time that we users start to use the right software for our benefit than the simply popular, but monopolistic and responsive (not innovative) Microsoft software. We need alternatives and that is what we have to practically.

Basically, Microsoft is getting mad. They attack every company: Adobe, Google, Apple, IBM, etc. We own our PCs and we can do anything with it, though currently i is Microsoft who is doing anything with our PCs. Why do get locked so much?

Microsoft is a company like any other. They're no better or worse than many other companies out there. They make something and heaven forbid they make it better otherwise, everyone will excuse them of monopolistic behaviors. Why don't you look into all of the companies you mentioned above?