Microsoft and the Mono project are working to increase interoperability between Silverlight and Mono Moonlight, said Brian Goldfarb, director of developer and user experience platforms at Microsoft, during an interview at Professional Developers Conference this week. Moonlight is an open-source implementation of Silverlight.
Goldfarb and Mono project lead Miguel de Icaza had a lively discussion about some of the legal technicalities concerning the work at a Tuesday evening cocktail party. Goldfarb told SD Times that he and de Icaza were commited to driving the work forward, and that an announcement will be made in the coming weeks (or months).
When asked whether Silverlight was part of the open Web, Microsoft executives including chief software architect Ray Ozzie and Server and Tools Business head Bob Muglia pointed to Silverlight as a testament to the platform's openess. Goldfarb added that Mono Moonlight protects customers' investments in Silverlight, so that vendor lock in will "never apply."
Whether Microsoft will actually open up all of its Silverlight/.NET libraries remains to be seen.