Laszlo is XML technology, not Flash technology. Avalon isn't about Web/GUI convergence.
A couple of points about this post:
1) Laszlo is an XML technology – while Royale is Flash technology.
2) Jon's right about XAML – it goes around CSS and HTML – like only Microsoft can. And it certainly IS in the 2006 timeframe.
But Laszlo is ready to go NOW. They're about to head into their v 2.0, whilke Royale is not even in beta yet.
Laszlo is VERY much like Avalon, enabling developers to build entire UIs – with barely any scriupted code. But the KEY difference between Laszlo and Royale – is that while Laszlo spits of .swf today, it will be able to spit out Avalon tomorrow.
So smart developers to build on top of Laszlo today, utilize the installed base of Flash but THEN be able to easily migrate their code to Avalon later. While Royale users will be locked into .swf. [Marc's Voice]