.NET is really damn nice imo, lots of documentation and pretty fun to follow and learn so why not, what irks you about it?
I also thought they would've dropped silverlight, but they really aren't. They're full steam ahead, but parallel to that they're advocating html5 and javascript use. Silverlight is critical to Microsoft right now, and it would be for a while it appears.
I feel you with the Flash issue though, it seems to be bleeding a bit