If you're real quiet you can hear it: the sound of everybody and their dog talking about Silverlight. It's big, exciting news, sure. It will change the face of RIA development, sure -- if only to create some more competition. But will it take over the web? I'm not so sure.
The video demos are impressive, though I fear the DRM hoops that a Microsoft backed content-delivery platform will enable. The "drop in your javascript and see exponential speed increases" claim is a strong pull as well. Plus, I like Python, and I like anything that will give me an opportunity to write in it more often, so there's that.
I'm still not drinking the kool-aid regarding managed code in general, though, so .NET in the browser on top of a mini-CLR isn't so appealing to me. Also, I cringe every time I have to open Visual Studio, so I'm really not looking for another reason to tie myself to it. There's always text editors, I guess (incidentally, your only option if you're developing on a Mac). Lack of Linux client support is the deal breaker for me, though, as I've made the transition to Ubuntu at home, and have no intention of ever installing Vista on any machine I own.
The Buzz (well, mostly TechCrunch) is declaring everything else dead. AJAX is dead:"a bicycle next to a ferrari"; Flash/Flex is dead: "an absolute toy". And everybody else really seems to be chomping at the bit to praise Silverlight and to turn it into a golden hammer for web apps.
I'm at least going to wait for the thing to get out of beta before calling it an everything-else-killer.
Here some stuff straight from various horses' mouths:
Webware: What is Silverlight, Really?
Jim Hugunin: A Dynamic Language Runtime (DLR)
Ted Leung: Silverlight and the DLR
TechCrunch: Silverlight: The Web Just Got Richer
The Joy of Flex: Silverlight makes Flash/Flex look like “an absolute toy” says Michael Arrington
Silverlight Makes the VRML Mistake
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