The lines between browser-based clients and desktop clients is already blurred. So in order to be accurate bloggers and journalists need to address that fact rather than getting hung up on differentiating between Silverlight and AIR.

There is, of course, the need to define different approaches and Silverlight and AIR do have different approaches to the same problem.

However, they are both trying to solve the same problem which is how to present information that is accessed via the Internet in a GUI representation across operating systems. Comparing Silverlight, AIR, Curl, Ajax seems very appropriate.

I cannot agree more that the line is blurring and frankly I’m excited about the time when it will just not exist.

But in the mean time accuracy and clarity are important otherwise with your logic above we could end up with arguments as lame as HTML engines are equivalent to .NET or Java

Technology journalists and bloggers are supposed to report the state of technology as it exists and as Peter said above .. “its not rocket science”

The truth is that line between desktop and RIA technologies is already blurred from a technical perspective.

For example, Curl (I work for them) has a single runtime that provides both a desktop- and a browser-based platform. You can develop Curl applications that run in the browser or can run on the desktop. In either case (applet or application) the Curl program has access to a quarantined section of the disk so the difference between RIA and Desktop is subtle at best.

The point is: Other RIA technologies are moving in the same direction as Curl which has offered this combination of desktop and web browser model for several years. Making the distinction between Silverlight and Adobe AIR isn’t going to help people in the long run. Eventually Silverlight will have an off-line desktop capability and so the distinction won’t hold.

The point I made in the post above was “AIR != Silverlight”

All I’m saying is that the comparison between AIR and Silverlight is irrelevant.

AIR and WPF is definitely a more relevant comparison but its still does not mean that AIR is equivalent to WPF .. and hence my statement above that AIR has no equivalent in the Microsoft world .. because the differences between AIR and WPF are way too many … the only common thing that they have is that both can be used to make applications that run on the desktop.

The statements in Imai’s comment ..

AIR == .NET is false because the differences are way too many and not negligible

.NET >>> AIR is false because there are things that AIR does better and there are things that .NET does better.

This is imai (small and youngest RIA lover) .As your say,I have puth the badge at my blog -> http://riadocs.com/?p=24#comment-10 . I also submitted the link at dzone,within few hours it comes to the popular links.All happens good but,I received a comment as follows ,,,
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Ok I’m confused as well.
Aren’t silver light apps and .NET WPF apps developed using XAML and isn’t that common lingua across the two?
If yes, doesn’t that mean that a silver light app that runs on the browser could be run on the desktop as well on top of standard .NET runtime?
AIR == .NET run time?
except that .NET >>> AIR?
Please do clarify
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I can’t able to get clear with this ..Waiting for your comments ..If possible have a visit on my blog ….Thanks for your badge too.

I know what WPF is and it is not an equivalent of AIR either, the keyword in that line about AIR is “with web technologies ” .. AIR allows you to create desktop applications with html/javascript/css if you wanted to, there is no equivalent of that in the microsoft world.

I still think there’s really not that much diff except they’re offerings from different (and competing) companies.

in the MS world there is a very real equivalent of the desktop application development for RIA development and that is called WPF or Windows Presentation Foundation.. Silverlight is a subset of this very framework shrunk to run in web scenarios..