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It worked on the same major platforms. One thing that probably extended its life somewhat was that it provided access to some Windows-specific DRM technologies on non-Windows platforms, not entirely unlike how Flash was once the most reliable cross-platform way to play video in a browser.

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> It worked on the same major platforms

Not true. silverlight never supported linux, unless you count the mono-based moonlight, which was buggy and didn't support DRM, so didn't work for the most common sites that used silverlight (like Netflix). Flash, on the other hand, supported linux for a long time.

Linux, with its 2% users at best, is not a major desktop platform.

by that logic, (desktop) safari, edge, and IE are not currently major browsers. Assuming that your 2% figure is correct. 2% of everyone that uses the internet is still a lot of people. And considerable amount of effort and money are spent on developing the linux desktop.

It's true because desktop linux was not a major platform. Windows 98/ME were a bigger desktop platform than Linux back then and Microsoft Silverlight didn't support them either. Because they were not major platforms.

There was a version created for the S60 (Nokia) platform!

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