It looks like Microsoft finally unleashed Spanky into the wild. Don't know what I'm talking about? Check out this animation.
It's always good to have an eye on Redmond, and I'll probably download Spanky and play around with it a bit, but I'm not worried about Spanky trying to muscle it's way into the space the Flash Platform has already carved out. As much as Spanky is touted as a "Flash Killer", it's not. Spanky aims to get designers involved in building "rich" interfaces for Windows applications.
On the internet, platform-agnostic applications are key. By the time Spanky goes cross-platform, if ever, the Flash Player will be even further along than what is on labs today, and already installed on almost every computer connected to the internet. As the animation says, "Go home, Spanky, your penetration is not nearly big enough."
But hey, if you need "video on a sphere", then maybe Spanky is right for you. Remember the Avalon demo at FITC 2005, anyone? How about four videos playing simultaneously on spheres orbiting another video sphere? That's just what user's need in an application...
Anyway, just trying to clear up some FUD. Flex 2 p@wnz! I'm sure Spanky will be well received by some developers, but stop with the "Flash Killer" monicker, it ain't happenin' anytime soon.
Seeing "Sparkle" and "Flash killer" in the same sentence irks me to no end, though perhaps for different reasons than yours. Have I ever heard "Flash killer" from Microsoft people? No. 95% of it has been Flashers blogging, "Sparkle has been touted as a 'Flash killer'", or "so much for being a 'Flash killer'".
But it's always left unspecified *who* is making the claim that Flash will be "killed" by the new product. Can anyone find me a link where someone says, "I am fairly certain that Sparkle will mean the end of Flash; here's why and how"?
Such a claim would be difficult to make because it is ridiculously broad. Flash isn't just used for RIAs. Even if Avalon somehow wins the RIA battle, people are not going to use Sparkle for web games, animations, banner ads, web video, Frog in a Blender, and all of the weird little things that Flash does. Until Strongbad reads his emails in Avalon, Flash isn't dead.
So Flashers, stop being insecure and stop calling Sparkle a "Flash killer." It's a ridiculous term that no one is signing their name to.
Couldn't agree more Robert.
Googling for "Sparkle Flash Killer" comes up with some reputable news sources terming it as such, such as eweek, news.com, informit.com, etc. Popular sites like these describing Sparkle as "the next Flash" does nothing but spread FUD.
I think part of the monicker, too, is from people from the Flash community working with Microsoft on the product.
Anyway, as you said, and like I tried to say, nothing to worry about.