How to Install Silverlight on Mac

Silverlight is an application similar to Adobe Flash Player to create web content. It was creed by Microsoft in 2006 and has not had any success. Yet you may see it somewhere.


What is Microsoft Silverlight?

Silverlight is a plug-in for web browsers (Firefox, Opera, IE, Safari ...) that lets you view and interact with animations similar to those of Flash Player, allowing entry of multimedia objects and interactive applications in web pages.

The Silverlight versions created by Microsoft running on Windows and Mac versions browsers. For open source Linux there is a plugin created by Novell is called Moonlight.


How to install Silverlight

Now you can install Microsoft Silverlight and installation procedure is even easier, in fact you can directly use an automatic procedure on the website for download, which detects the most suitable version for your computer, whether it is a Windows or Mac OS X. Make sure that your Mac is Intel based.

Some people are currently having trouble installing Silverlight 2.0 on Mac Intel architecture since the installer performs a check processor and has not performed correctly. The latest version of Silverlight does not work on PowerPC (PPC).

To qualify for Silverlight 2.0 on Intel Macs, in case of failure by not properly detected by the processor, the test should be performed:

Code:

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system_profiler SPHardwareDataType -xml | grep "Intel"

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and can be solved as follows:

• Download Silverlight 2 for Mac OS X.
• Open the image (. Dmg) discharged.
• Go to the folder you uploaded the image.
• Right click on Silverlight2.0.pkg and select "Show Package Contents".
• Enter to "Contents"
• Enter "Resources"
• Drag the file "InstallationCheck" to the trash.
• Close the folder.
• Double click on Silverlight2.0.pkg and continue installation as normal.

Thus, the installer will skip the check and installed without problem.


Why NOT to use Silverlight?

Looking deeper articles on the subject, we find abundant criticism of Silverlight:

According to the International Committee for the interoperation between European systems there is some concern that with Silverlight, Microsoft attempts to introduce content on the network could only be accessible from the Windows platform.

The use of XAML in Silverlight is positioned to replace HTML standard (which is cross-platform). If Silverlight becomes widely used by many people, there is a risk that users have to get them to buy Microsoft products to access the Internet content.


Alternatives to Silverlight

The currently most widely used programs (which do the same as Silverlight) are:

• HTML5: With HTML5 can do many things that before could not even imagine. Addition is built into all modern browsers, so you have a good chance to finish the rest of plugins imposing closed.
• Flash Player: A Plugin to view multimedia, animation, interactive applications and games to web pages. It is multiplatform, is present in almost all browsers and has several free alternatives that also work very well.
• Java: With Java you can create both programs and multiplayer games as plugins for inclusion in web pages. You can also use the open source version of Java, which works the same and is called OpenJDK.
• Adobe Air: It could be defined as an extension of Flash Player to be able to add widgets and software to your desktop. As Flash and Java is cross platform and all you do it will be seen in Linux, Windows and Mac

For the installation of Silverlight on Mac OS, you always have to make sure that your Mac OS X version is at least Mac OS X 10.4.11 or higher. Otherwise there is no way you can install Silverlight on your Mac. If you have latest version, then also you have to make sure that it has Firefox version 3 or higher or Safari version 4 or higher. If don’t, update them and then go for the installation. After the installation don’t forget to reboot the computer. It seems to me that in Mac, all Silverlight files are stored in /Library/Internet Plug-Ins/Silverlight.plugin and ~/Library/Application Support/Microsoft/Silverlight. The installation will make a symbolic link within your Applications folder and the preferences program. The link is stored within the .plugin bundle

I have had the problem with installing Silverlight on Mac. First I didn’t get it but later I have assumed that it might be due to the MacKeeper which I have never used before. So if you have any problem with installation and the installer does not able to run on your Mac, just try disabling MacKeeper while you run the installer. Hope that it helps.