I've dove deep into Silverlight as the company I work for has me writing an extensive Silverlight app. I do question the choice of Silverlight and Silverlight's future on the web everyday because I have yet to come across something we are doing in SL that couldn't be done in HTML and Javascript.<p>I have changed my tune a bit though as I've come to appreciate Silverlight is extremely well designed and extremely powerful. Does Silverlight really have a compelling, deep future on websites? Eh, I don't know. <i>Should</i> Silverlight have some kind of compelling worthwhile future, be it on phones, tablets, media centers and desktop apps? IMO, absolutely, it's a superb platform. For example, if Windows Phone 7 can gain some marketshare, I'll be tickled. As I'd take Silverlight over CocoaTouch any day.
TL;DR<p>Microsoft needs to stop assuming that people care enough to read paragraphs of marketing-speak. It's ludicrous that it took them 1500 words to say that they're a faster version of Flash and that they're not stepping on HTML5's toes.
<i>Broadly-implemented standards are like paved roads. They help the industry move forward together. But before you can pave a road, someone needs to blaze a trail. </i>