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Silverlight On the Way To Linux
Afforess writes "For the past two years Microsoft and Novell have been working on the 'Moonlight' project. It is a runtime library for websites that run Silverlight. It should allow PCs running Linux to view sites that use Siverlight. Betanews reports 'In the next stage of what has turned out to be a more successful project than even its creators envisioned, the public beta of Moonlight — a runtime library for Linux supporting sites that expect Silverlight — is expected within days.' Moonlight 2.0 is already in the works."
While Windows is getting version 2, and the Mac is almost version 2, Linux is almost getting version 1. Awesome job MS.
With what is being achieved with Javascript and dynamic HTML, I see less and less need for technologies such as Flash and Silverlight. The only thing they really have going for them are the development environments. To see some of the games already implemented using plain old Javascript and HTML:
http://www.apple.com/webapps/games/
Jumpstart the tartan drive.
I can't say I have much love for Adobe and Flash, and I simply do not trust Microsoft, but if Linux support is going to be a key point-scoring device in the corporate pissing contests of today then I suppose a few good things might come of it. Let battle commence!
Moonlight is great but it's for Linux only. (Mono itself runs on Linux, Windows and Mac OS X.) That reduces its suitability for making dynamic websites, because Mac and Windows users don't have a free browser plugin to run them with. They only have Microsoft's proprietary Silverlight plugin, and if you're going to require a binary-only plugin then you might as well just use Flash. So I think a Windows version of Moonlight would be cool; just as many people prefer to run the free Firefox browser even though Windows includes the proprietary Internet Explorer, so Moonlight could provide a free alternative for dynamic content.
-- Ed Avis ed@membled.com
It's a real treat when you find a site that is static html. It's fast, clean, and refreshing. Flash and Ajax have their place, but more often than not they just irritate me. I'm tired of sites that peg my CPU and crash my browser.
Maybe I'm just getting old and cynical, but I'm sure Moonlight will only contribute to web bloat and add to my frustrations. And that is being generous and not bring up that MS is part of the equation.
I just hope this fails to catch on and people forget about it.
So let's keep the facts straight. Microsoft is trying to push a Flash-me-too Silverlight and invests. They also invest in other platform implementations via Novell. All customers use Flash.
I installed Silverlight on my Vista PC to view a boring Microsoft developer Website video. No one else uses the software. It is nice that provided Silverlight achieved the necessary market penetration which requires marketing investments of Microsoft, the Linux implementation Moonlight would be just one generation behind.
But more likely is that Microsoft will drop the Silverlight project and then you have open source developers who wasted their time on the moonlight implementation.
Javascript cannot be used to build true in browser applications.
You can build GUIs with it, interact with server side stuff, and you can make pretty games, but not a great deal more.
With Flash you can write whole applications, including pretty complex logic, and Silverlight is even better for application development.
Yes, yes, its a Microsoft product, evil, blah blah.. I get it. Moving on...
If you are being tasked to write applications that run in a browser then Silverlight is a great option. Now you can write one and have it be cross platform as well, that's a god thing.
The version number difference between platforms is a problem, but lets not be asking Microsoft to rush anything, you know how badly that goes.
A learning experience is one of those things that say, 'You know that thing you just did? Don't do that.' - D. Adams
Just curious, is there an open source alternative with javascript/ajax and Ogg Vorbis available which can compete with flash and Silverlight? I mean free server components, free developer tools and free web plugins if needed. If not, why not?
Lists the different approach Silverlight takes over flash. It's mostly about making it better for developers than the end user.
You mean, like this one (which is funded by Microsoft)?
So does the latest Moonlight version work with the Netflix "Watch Instantly" feature? If not then this isn't a very interesting announcement.
> what silverlight seeks to achieve that isnt currently offered in the web browsing experience?
Microsoftness.
> I have flash in linux
Yeah, but Flash was created by Macromedia and is currently maintained by Adobe. Microsoft wants Silverlight to be used instead of Flash because Silverlight is a Microsoft product. From anyone else's perspective it's a solution in search of a problem, but from Microsoft's perspective they're trying to get into the game.
I don't really see the point of Moonlight, though. If there were websites that actually *used* Silverlight, other than the demo sites Microsoft set up to show it off, then I could see some people on Linux might want to be able to view those sites. But as it stands, I just don't see the point.
Cut that out, or I will ship you to Norilsk in a box.
That's why you extend System.Windows.Form first.
.Net.
.Net on Windows. How they support Mono and Moonlight is a direct reflection of that.
It's one thing if the project was completely independent - like KDE is with Xorg. It's another thing when you control both projects, like Microsoft does with Silverlight and
If the funtionality they needed was not available at the level they needed, then they should have updated the lower levels to provide it so that it was available. Then Mono would only have to add anything new at the lower levels, and Silverlight would be directly supported.
However, that is not what Microsoft wants. Microsoft wants Silverlight on
Truth is like the sun. You can shut it out for a time, but it ain't goin' away. - Elvis Presley (source: imdb.com)
re: "If Gnash is too limited, stick to the minimum version of Flash that supports the feature you need...unless you're extremely advanced, that version should be available on all major platforms."
Actually, it's most practical to go with the H.264 version of Player 9, which 90% of consumers successfully installed into their browsers within its first nine months:
http://www.adobe.com/products/player_census/flashplayer/version_penetration.html
If you're going live in December, clientside support on "major platforms" should be up above 95% by then.
Last month's Player 10, with its pixel-manipulation and P2P and all, is already used on some early-adopter sites, but will be mainstream by next summer.
The interesting thing is mobile. Adobe Flash Player is now moving to a single coding profile across devices of all form-factors... there will still be profiles of device capability, but not of runtime codebase. The goal is predictable capability across all display screens. It will take time and work to get there, but it's a good goal.
jd/adobe
http://acko.net/files/bacon/animation-demo.html
This demo works in Firefox, Safari, Opera, and Chrome. What's more, the animations are smooth and beautiful in Chrome thanks to it's v8 Javascript engine. Now we just need to get people weaned from IE6.
I just spend a little time reading thought the MS web site, and it never really says!
WTF is Silverlight?
Is it some web server? or a browser? or some scripting language?
I don't get it, and I don't feel like downloading it and installing it to find out, or watching there video.
Am I the only one confused by all this meaningless marketing speak?
I mean it talks about XML and features, but never says what the hell the damb thing is!!!!
Did I miss the memo on this somewhere?
I am always doing that which I can not do, in order that I may learn how to do it. - Pablo Picasso