Nov 03, 2011 Does Linux OS need Silverlight? TigerLinux: General: 22: 08:08 PM: LXer: Microsoft Brings Silverlight 2 to Linux: LXer: Syndicated Linux News: 0: 05:50 AM: LXer: Moonlight (Silverlight for Linux) is available now: LXer: Syndicated Linux News: 0: 09:10 AM: LXer: Moonlight is Not Silverlight, Silverlight is Not. We need to hang out billy baker. When Silverlight was launched, just doing Windows and Mac was almost enough, but today the world looks different. If Microsoft is serious about WPF Everywhere, Linux and Android (which is Linux based) support is a necessity. Silverlight is a framework used to run rich Internet applications. Netflix video streaming is an example of a service that uses Silverlight. Silverlight is a web-browser plugin used on Windows systems. However, how can Linux users enjoy web services and content that require Silverlight?

The open-source implementation of Silverlight for Linux operating systems has reached an important milestone in development, evolving to the first Beta build. Novell is currently offering for download Moonlight 2.0 Beta 1, which is designed to be the equivalent of Silverlight 2 for Windows. Developed as an integral part of the Mono Project, with the open-source initiative backed by Novell in a technical collaboration with Microsoft, Moonlight is set up to provide Linux users with an open-source alternative to Silverlight. Aiming for parity with Silverlight 2, Moonlight 2.0 Beta 1 allows Linux users to view and use Silverlight and Windows Media content.

“This release is feature complete, but as a beta there are various known bugs (mostly minor) and most assuredly unknown ones as well. We still haven't completed the security audit of the source code (mono or moonlight), so you need to be aware that there may be issues. As such we recommend that you should only use this plugin on trusted sites (e.g. internal or well-known web sites) on non-production computers. This situation will gradually evolve over the beta releases,” reads an excerpt from the Beta Release Security Notice.

Install Silverlight For Linux

While indeed boosting the level of functionality and performance compared to Moonlight 1, Moonlight 2.0 still lags compared to Silverlight, which has been bumped all the way to version 3 by Microsoft earlier this year. However, the evolution from version 1.0 to 2.0 is synonymous with the introduction of support for adaptive streaming of both video and audio playback for Moonlight. With adaptive streaming users will benefit from a superior experience when accessing online multimedia materials, with the content being seamlessly tailored to the specific quality of their connection.

“Moonlight 2.0 is now feature complete and we consider it ready to test against Silverlight 2.0 sites. Users that have installed Moonlight 2.0 previously will be offered a chance next time they start Firefox to upgrade to the beta. Although Microsoft has already released Silverlight 3.0 with new functionality and APIs it will take some time to be fully adopted, so while we might be behind Microsoft's offering, we still think that this will allow users to access most Silverlight content out there today,” revealed Novell’s Miguel de Icaza.

Silverlight For Linux

Novel added that Moonlight 2.0 Beta 1 came with Mono runtime functionality embedded, offering users a 300 times faster performance over the latest Javascript engine. At the same time, Novell underlined that the Mono runtime functionality would allow developers to build Rich Internet Applications taking advantage of a variety of programming languages, from C#, to Ruby and Python, and of course Javascript.

“The API implemented by Moonlight 2.0 is a slight superset of Microsoft Silverlight 2.0 as it contains a few of the 3.0 APIs that fit naturally into our development process. These include: Easing functions, SaveFileDialog, MultiScaleImage 3.0 API enhancements, MediaStreamSource now supports PCM audio data, RGBA and YV12 video data (for your pluggable media codec needs). WriteableBitmap (for your Quaking needs). Moonlight 2.0 supports the Silverlight's 3.0 media pipeline. This media pipeline allows developers to plug C# code at various points in the media playback process,” de Icaza explained.

Moonlight 2.0 Beta 1 is available for download here.Silverlight 3 RTW (3.0.40624.0) is available for download here. Zip with password macos.