LOGIN | REGISTER NOW | SUBSCRIBE
 
print Printable version 
Most Read Latest News Blog Resources
Mono brings .NET to Android
At Microsoft MIX, Mono will unveil the ability to port .NET applications to the Android op...

Does Windows cost Microsoft opportunities?
Microsoft's decision to focus .NET on Windows is stifling innovation due to the specter of...

OSBC focus turns to best practices for open-source adoption
Businesses are no longer asking why they should adopt, but how do they use open source leg...

Digg!  Digg
Reddit  Reddit
Slashdot  Slashdot
Share on facebook  Facebook
Share on Twitter  Twitter

Mono Moonlight goes gold


By David Worthington
February 11, 2009 — 
Moonlight, an open-source implementation of Microsoft's Silverlight runtime for Linux, reached its first milestone today.

The Mono team has made Moonlight 1.0 generally available for Linux distributions, including Fedora, OpenSUSE, Red Hat, SUSE Linux Enterprise and Ubuntu. Moonlight 1.0 is licensed under the GNU Library General Public License.

Moonlight's source code was published in May while it was still in beta.

Its final release was originally slated for August to coincide with the release of Silverlight 2.0. A preview version was released earlier this month for streaming the U.S. Presidential inauguration.

When asked why its release was delayed, Miguel de Icaza, vice president of developer platforms for Novell and leader of the Mono project, said that the delay was caused by "logistics on getting the media codecs ported, signed and distributed."

Microsoft does not directly support Moonlight, but it has nurtured its development by contributing its technical guidance to the project, as first reported by SD Times. Novell will handle all Moonlight support requests.

Microsoft has supplied Novell with test suites for the Common Language Runtime, Microsoft’s implementation of the Common Language Infrastructure standard, to create Moonlight. Microsoft has also open-sourced high-level pieces of Silverlight 2 under the Microsoft Public License.

"Without those controls, it would have taken years for us to catch up with Microsoft," de Icaza noted in his blog.

In addition, Microsoft has also granted the Mono team access to the Microsoft Media Pack, a set of licensed media codecs for video and audio. The codecs support decoding for Windows Media Video, Windows Media Audio and MP3 files.

As an alternative, Developers may compile FFmpeg codecs themselves. FFmpeg is an open-source tool for audio and video conversion.

“We have worked with the Moonlight team and Novell to enable interoperability between Windows and Linux platforms, and [to] extend the high-quality interactive Web and video experience for the benefit of the Linux community,” said Scott Guthrie, corporate vice president of the .NET Developer Division at Microsoft.

Now that it has reached parity with Silverlight 1.0, the Mono team is focused on delivering Moonlight 2, which is based on Silverlight 2.0. The source code for an early build is available on the project's website. Microsoft is continuing to help the project along, wrote de Icaza in his blog.

De Icaza indicated that Moonlight development would continue through Silverlight 3.0, which Microsoft is expected to announce at its MIX conference in Las Vegas in March. Silverlight 3.0 will include additional controls, an editable and interactive designer for Visual Studio and Visual Web Developer Express, and richer data-binding support, according to Microsoft.


Related Search Term(s): Linux, Mono Moonlight


Share this link: http://www.sdtimes.com/link/33265
 

Add comment


Name*
Email*  
Country     


  • Comment
  • Preview
Loading



 
 
 
 
News on Monday
more>>
SharePoint Tech Report
more>>


   

 
 
Download Current Issue
ISSUE 3/15/2010 PDF

Need Back Issues?
DOWNLOAD HERE

Receive the print Edition?


 
blogs tab
Google Code turns 5
Google Code Turns 5, and adds a Paxos Algorithm to make the system more stable and reliable.
03/17/2010 11:16 AM EST

Test your Visual Studio 2010 know-how
Microsoft is offering free beta certification exams for Visual Studio 2010.
03/17/2010 11:08 AM EST

Microsoft lifts the hood on IE9
Microsoft is previewing IE9.
03/16/2010 01:10 PM EST

 

Events calendar tab
EclipseCon
3/22/2010 to 3/25/2010
Santa Clara, Calif.
The Eclipse Foundation

DevConnections
4/12/2010 to 4/14/2010
Las Vegas
Penton Media

MySQL Conf. and Expo
4/12/2010 to 4/15/2010
Santa Clara, Calif.
O'Reilly Media

High Performance Computing Linux Financial Markets
4/19/2010
New York City
Flagg Management

Informix User Conf.
4/25/2010 to 4/28/2010
Overland Park, Kans.
IIUG