AND should be better than OR, shouldn’t it?

I just finished reading a post on one of the very few RIA blogs I read. Yet another post about Flash and Silverlight and their implicit competition, which in many cases is more like a religious war. If you know me, you know I have tried hard in my career not to be platform-dependent, and to always use the best solution for the need. If Silverlight ends up with different features from Flash, and is as stable and as widespread, it could obviously be the better choice in some cases. But since they are still very similar, does it really make sense for a company to offer both (AND)? What Microsoft (Scott Barnes) says is that companies shouldn’t have to decide which one to go with (OR); they should be able to offer both (AND). My opinion is that whoever thinks so doesn’t have much idea of the challenges a company or agency faces every day.

In these last years I’ve been lucky enough to manage teams of RIA developers for big and ambitious agencies in the UK, which in theory should be the perfect candidates to offer both platforms (AND). My managers definitely agreed: we are big, we should offer 360º solutions. In reality, what makes practice differ from theory is the quality of the work you want to offer. To offer top-quality solutions, like any top agency would like to, you need to master the chosen platform. Mastering means that everyone involved, from the Technical Architect and User Experience Designer during planning to the Graphic Designer and Developer during production, should know the platform’s potential and limits inside out. The reality is that there are so many people in the process who don’t actually know the difference between Ajax and Flash, apart, of course, from the developers. This is also one of the reasons why hybrid people, who can apply creativity to a technology’s potential and limits, are more likely to push the boundaries and create something innovative. But of course, in big organisations there isn’t much space for hybrids.

Obviously it would be much easier for a company to use both if it didn’t have to push the limits. But if you end up doing the same things with both platforms, why not use only one in the first place? Or why not find a more cost-effective way to develop with Ajax and get rid of the plugins?

April 2009