Silverlight Plugin for Linux, Moonlight, Sees Version 1.0

As a Linux user, I can state that it’s at times frustrating to have to wait so long to see a technology become available for the OS, namely, web-based technologies. Adobe’s Flash technology, for example, took a while to mature on the platform, especially if you ran a 64-bit OS, and it really wasn’t until recently that I found myself actually pleased with their offering.

But while Flash might be one of the most popular plugins on the web, it’s not the only one. Microsoft’s Silverlight technology has been doing a fair job of playing catch-up, and for the most part, I’ve been pleased with what I’ve seen with the technology on Windows. Well, the wait is somewhat over for those who want Silverlight functionality in their Linux OS, but there are a few caveats.

The first is that this “final” 1.0 version supports only Silverlight 1.0, and since many sites that are running Silverlight are running 2.0, that still leaves us in the dark. However, with development so active, we should be seeing 2.0 support very, very soon, with an alpha supposedly planned for next month. Also, once the plugin is installed, not all 1.0 content will work if special codecs are required. Luckily, to install those, you will be prompted and just be required to click “Install”. Fairly simple overall.

While the plugin lacks a little bit to be desired, I have to give kudos to Miguel de Icaza and his team for their dedication to this project since it’s beginning in 2007. It’s come a long way, and hopefully we’ll be able to see much success with it in the months ahead.

Microsoft’s proprietary multimedia codecs, which are used for streaming video content, are not bundled with the plugin. When the user visits a web page that requires the codecs, Moonlight will launch a codec installation utility that can automatically download the codec binaries from Microsoft and install them on the user’s system.