Silverlight 3.0 Released, Allows Apps Outside the Browser

Many different sources are reporting that Microsoft has unleashed the third major version of Silverlight to the masses. With 3.0 we see things like better 3D graphics support, the ability to offload tasks to a GPU, and the ability to run apps outside of the browser. "Silverlight's video capabilities have always been impressive when compared to Flash, and the new version boasts some new features that should keep the competition with Flash hot. It uses a media broadcasting technology Microsoft calls Smooth Streaming, an adaptive technology for playing the same H.264 video stream at the highest bitrate the device and its bandwidth limitations will allow. So if you've got a fast computer with an HD monitor and a wide open pipe, you'll see super high quality video at up to full 1080p HD. If you've got a dinky smartphone with mid-level data service, you'll see a constrained version of the same video."

Comments

Re:H.264 licensing

[jmorris42]

> Moonlight will have H.264, but we are working towards our first beta of Moonlight 2.0

You do realize that this is why you have failed. The only point(?) of Moonlight is to allow Linux/Unix users to access Silverlight content. So how many sites are still using Silverlight 1.0? And you might get 2.0 out the door and be working on 3.0 before Microsoft releases 4.0. Chasing the taillights of a corporation with an unlimited development budget is a losing game. If they aren't going to give you guys an inside track (under NDA perhaps?) so that you can release within a few months of a new 'upstream' release there isn't a lot of point to the effort. Or am I missing something?