Silverlight that degrades to html

Question

I am interested in creating a website entirely in silverlight (personal reasons) but I don't want people who don't yet have silverlight (a good many) to have to install a plugin just to view my site. The solution I am leaning towards is to start with a flat html/css version of the site and present the silverlight version only to people who already have it installed.

My question is this:

Is my reasoning misguided. Is there a better way to go about this. And what is the best way to avoid having to duplicate content across both versions of the site.

Answer 1

I personally like graceful degradation for a web site. I want Silverlight on my site, but I see people on Twitter who come to a Silverlight site and say - no way will I install that plug-in. So those people must be accommodated too.

I wrote about Silverlight Islands, how to implement using JQuery. This method provides search engine material, it provides a way for non-Silverlight lovers to use the site, and it provides a way for you to enjoy your web site as you wish.

But it's a lot more work. http://www.faxt.com/blog/post/2008/09/Show-Multiple-Silverlight-Controls-in-the-Same-Page-with-jQuery.aspx