Microsoft Releases Silverlight 1.0, Linux Support To Come

Microsoft has released the first official version of their Silverlight “Flash-killer” runtime, which means we should be seeing more non-Flash-Flash-like content on the web soon. Originally, support was only slated for Windows and Mac OS X, but someone at Microsoft realized that Linux should be supported as well, as it should be. If you are to release a “revolutionary tool” that makes the web-experience even better, it makes little sense to exclude a large portion of the market.

Novell’s lead Mono developer and GNOME creator Miguel de Icaza and his team will be the people responsible for porting it to Linux. As you’d expect, it will run atop Mono, and since Novell and Microsoft are tight like peas and carrots, it should be a reliable solution in the end. How difficult it will be to install on non-Novell distros is what I am curious about. Linux aside, Windows and Mac OS X users can grab the latest version off the official site and give it a test by finding compatible sites with their showcase.

Microsoft now plans to work closely with Novell to ensure that Silverlight is fully supported on the Linux platform. In a blog entry, de Icaza discusses the scope of Microsoft’s involvement in Novell’s Silverlight development project. “We have had a cordial relationship with many developers at Microsoft for quite some time,” de Icaza writes in his blog entry. “Today we are formalizing a collaboration between Microsoft and Novell with the explicit purpose of bringing Silverlight to Linux and do this in a fully supported way.”

Source: Ars Technica