Ajax Vs Flex Vs SilverLight

I'm sneakin' into some tech stuff here.. Yesterday, I started exploring on the latest RIA (Rich Internet Application) Development methodologies available and found lot of interesting stuff and comparision.. Three major technologies available for this need.

1) Ajax
2) Flex (Adobe)
3) SilverLight (Microsoft)

I've used Ajax for a while and got impressed with its power!.. Interestingly this successful technology has to meet his tough rivals by the form of Flex and Silverlight... Check out the comparision of these three HOT technologies..

• Plugin Requirements

Ajax - None required
Flex - Flash plugin required
SilverLight - Silverlight plugin required
Currently slight advantage for AJAX and Flash. The Flash plugin is ubiquitous and Silverlight is rare, but that will rapidly change. It is also a moot point for internal applications where the browser landscape can be controlled.

• Ease of Development for RIAs

Ajax - Mediocre. While plenty of decent libraries exist (e.g. Google Web Toolkit , Echo2, et. al.) for helping development effort, there is a severe limitation to what can be done with JavaScript, HTML, and CSS. Developers often spend a lot of time writing custom JavaScript to manipulate the DOM. Even leveraging JS libraries like Prototype are clunky. Can do neat things using HTML/CSS hacks, but generally clunky to build anything robust.
Flex - Very good. Well documented libraries. Decent development environment.
SilverLight - Remains to be seen, but MS has historically been good at building easy to use development environments.
Flex is way ahead of AJAX here

• APIs for Visual Display

Ajax - Poor when compared to other technologies. Limited by HTML/CSS. There are cool and inventive hacks, but nowhere near the functionality available in Flex (and it appears Silverlight)
Flex - Very Good
SilverLight - Seemingly tremendous

• Testability

Ajax - Can be done fairly well when using tools like Selenium to build out automated test sets that execute the JavaScript and then check the DOM.
Flex - Can be painful
SilverLight - Unknown for me. Will the CLR make this easier by allowing for unit tests to be embedded?
Testing both AJAX and Flash can be challenging.

• Maturity Level

Ajax - High. JavaScript, HTML, CSS, and XML all are robust, stable, and well understood technologies.
Flex - Medium. Flex/Flash is a great platform, but I have uncertainty about how the forthcoming Apollo release will affect the technology. This may be more my ignorance than a technology limitation.
SilverLight - Low. Beta status

• Developer Community

Ajax - Very large as a general technology, but if you are using a specific library, like Echo 2, the community shrinks significantly.
Flex - Large
SilverLight - Small now, but I imagine it will grow very rapidly

Clearly, It seems like Flex and SilverLight are goin' to rule everyone soon.. Dont stay idle and lose the race.. Come, Let's cook Flex and SilverLight from now on...

First Post!

Hello Fellaas,

This is my first blog. I've been a feather-less bird for a long time now.. I don wanna b like diz anymore.. I wanna fly.. I'm gonna share my thoughts, happiness, sorrows, day2day events, technical stuff and a lot more here.. Check diz blog often.. Itz gonna b interesting.. Yo critics, teasers, applause r alwayz welcome..
I'll be back wid a nice post soon........ :)