He says I’ll be impressed if I visit the site. So I do. And get this where video should be playing:

Hm. Nice. So I figure it must be because I’m on my wife’s Mac laptop – although Silverlight reportedly runs on a Mac no one with half a brain expects it to be on parity with their Windows software. Try again on my hoopty laptop (the afore-mentioned ThinkPad), using my browser of choice- Firefox. Result?

(yep- exact same error message on Firefox/Vista)

And that pretty much sums it up.

Now sure, I could use Internet Explorer on Windows to get a seamless experience, but when over 98% of internet-enabled systems have Flash already installed (and that browser/platform combo is only one of many), why in God’s name should I have to download and install additional software just to see the site as it’s authors intended? You can argue that Flash is also a plug-in, but it’s a plug-in that’s PREINSTALLED on most all modern browsers, and can update itself as easily – without requiring a casual browser to configure their system to see a website.

If that’s what a banner Silverlight experience is supposed to look like, Microsoft’s got a lot of work to do. Utterly worthless.

Update, 4/2/08: Looks like the big bad Silverlight-powered MLB Mosaic launch is an absolute catastrophe. Many subscribers are already removing Silverlight to get better performance. To all the asshats who’d been shilling SL in the now-closed comments down below, note that the Flash viewers NEVER went down on MLB.com. Just goes to prove the title of this post definitively. Yep, that Silverlight’s a real treat – glad I didn’t pay for a Mosaic subscription….

References:
http://mosaic.mlblogs.com/archives/2008/04/mosaic_update_temporarily_unav.html

http://venturebeat.com/2008/04/02/mlbtv-strikes-out-with-premium-online-video/

ttp://www.pcworld.com/article/id,144061-pg,1/article.html

http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2008/04/02/mlbtv-strikes-out-again-0

So although I could be back in brushed metal by end of this week/beginning of next, right now I’m stuck with a hooptilicious ThinkPad running Vista. Which has to be the most disappointing part of the whole process- there were no loaner Macs to spare, just a bunch ‘o frankenhooptiesque PC towers – and this hulking black brick of a laptop. Now I don’t mind using Windows here and again in a nice contained box on my Mac screen, but being stuck with a Windows machine for the better part of a day now- quite frankly I can’t remember why I ever put up with it to begin with. I’ve never missed my Mac more, mainly cause on that platform shit just works. And smoothly. With Windows, no matter how skilled I am (and I do know my shit here) it always seems I’m struggling between what I want to do, and the fucked-up process one has to follow to make it so.

I just don’t understand why so many people put up with such a substandard user experience. Seriously. I think I’ve only marginally accepted Windows this long because it wasn’t my primary platform- there was always a better option. But for now it’s like I’ve been downgraded from a Ferrari to some Yugo-based, cut-rate monstrosity. I’m just going to try and think positively, and take this PC-only experience as a learning experience or character-building exercise- cause it sure isn’t fun. Ugh.