For a few months (actually years) I have been active on twitter and see lots and lots of people twittering about WPF and Silverlight (or Microsoft in general).

I always learned that when I say something (and in my opinion, tweeting is just saying something) to:

1. Check your sources
2. Make sure you checked your sources
3. Oh, one more thing, is your message (mostly complains) actually valid?

Now the most people that I see complaining are people that are not able to run Linux. Probably because Silverlight doesn’t run on Linux, but other people complain because they “have to install Silverlight”. Oh lord, do you want to keep your system so clean that you can’t even install a plug-in?

Simple message for the haters out there

Think about why you hate WPF, Silverlight or Microsoft in general. Did they hurt you, or maybe your family? Does it hurt that these are great technologies to write LOB (Line of Business) applications with the speed of sound (yes, you can write business apps very fast using WPF or Silverlight)? Or, is it maybe that you can’t view movies or TV episodes because television stations decided to use Silverlight for media streaming?

Well, for the latter I have some very valid arguments:

1. Smooth streaming (everywhere in the movie you get, it starts immediately, no buffering)
2. DRM (digital right management), which is available out of the box. You can complain about this as much as you want, but you want to get paid for your work as well, don’t you?

Now I compare the use of, for example, Silverlight with buying a car. Silverlight is a Ferrari with lots of capabilities. However, if you live in the jungle, the Ferrari is probably a bad choice because your roads (computer) are not compatible with the Ferrari (Silverlight). It’s simple: don’t buy the Ferrari. The same goes for Silverlight: if you hate it, then simple don’t use it! But, don’t complain that others see how great a Ferrari can drive simply because they invested in some decent roads instead of a free dirt road (for example, Linux).

Morale of this story is: think about why you hate Silverlight. Probably there is more behind it then you think, and maybe you should get some serious help. Seriously… Or just buy a new machine that includes Windows or Mac OSX and stop complaining!