What are the differences between Silverlight for Windows, Silverlight for Mac OS X, and Silverlight for Linux?
Silverlight supports the same feature set, because it is designed to be completely compatible between all the operating systems and browsers it supports. One advantage Silverlight has on Windows is the ability to get high-resolution and pressure-sensitive input data from a stylus or touch device, although this extra information is given in a way that avoids the need to write Windows-specific code. (See Chapter 7, “Responding to Input Events,” for more details.) Silverlight also has different performance characteristics on different browsers and operating systems. For example, windowless controls (described later in the chapter) and elements with transparency are especially slow in Safari on Mac OS X. And of course, Silverlight has bugs that only apply to a specific browser or operating system. Some of these are pointed out in this book.
