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This article or section contains information about computer software currently in development. The content may change as the software development progresses. |
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Moonlight is an upcoming free and open-source implementation of the Microsoft Silverlight runtime. It is currently being developed by the Mono Project.[1] Silverlight 1.0 was released on September 5 2007.
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Status and roadmap
In an interview in the beginning of June 2007, Miguel de Icaza said that the Mono team expected to offer a feasibility "alpha" demo in mid-June 2007, with support for Firefox on Linux by the end of the year.[2] After a 21 day hacking spree by the Mono team, a public demo was shown at Microsoft ReMIX conference in Paris, France on June 21, 2007.[3] However, as of September 2007, developers still need to install and compile a lot of Mono and Olive (the experimental Mono subproject for .NET 3.0 support) modules from the Mono SVN repository to be able to test Moonlight.[4] The end goal still is to provide Moonlight as a Mozilla plugin[5], but as a lot of work still needs to be done[4], no firm date has yet been given on the Moonlight website.
Microsoft support
Since the first demo, Microsoft is cooperating with Novell to help the building of Moonlight.[6] Support include exclusive access granted for Novell for the following Silverlight artefacts[7]:
- Microsoft Test suites for Silverlight,
- Silverlight specifications details, beyond those available on the web,
- Binary codecs for Windows Media video and audio, only licensed for use with Moonlight when running in a web browser. Other decoders will also work include Gstreamer and ffmpeg (used during the development stage) but Novell will not provide prepackaged version that include these libraries because of licensing and patent restrictions in the United States.
Proponents such as Groklaw argued early on that that the licensing rights are only granted to Novell and Novell's customers.[8] However this claim was largely dismissed when Microsoft released a public covenant not to sue anyone that makes use of Moonlight.[9] Other experts have argued that this may be another example of Microsoft's Embrace, extend and extinguish strategy by attracting Linux users to a proprietary Microsoft technology.[10]
Codecs integration
Although Moonlight is free and open-source, the codecs it uses for video and audio support are coming from Microsoft and are provided only in binary format, and only licensed for use with Moonlight on a web browser (see above). Mono architect Miguel de Icaza wrote in his blog that the Mono team prototyped Moonlight video support using the LGPLed FFmpeg engine, but that they were unable to redistribute packaged versions that used that library due to licensing issues with the FFmpeg library inside the United States.[7][11] It led some commentators to hint that the Mono team might be in danger of being tainted by their close collaboration with Microsoft.[12] However, de Icaza stated in his blog that because Mono's primary license was MIT, it could not accept contributions from GPL or LPGL (the two licenses being incompatible), even if they were able to relicense as LGPL their own MIT code.[13] The code that makes use of the FFmpeg library will be available for anyone that wishes to build a package that using the FFmpeg library rather than Microsoft's binary codes provided by Microsoft in the release version of Moonlight.
References
- ^ Moonlight. Mono Team. Retrieved on 2007-09-01.
- ^ Dana Gardner. the FASTforward blog: Expect a June demo of Silverlight on Linux, sans browser. Retrieved on 2007-06-06.
- ^ Implementing Silverlight in 21 Days. Retrieved on 2007-06-22.
- ^ a b Moonlight: Getting started. Mono Team. Retrieved on 2007-09-02.
- ^ Moonlight: The Plugin. Mono Team. Retrieved on 2007-09-01.
- ^ Foley, Mary Jo (2007-09-25). Microsoft officially ‘extends support’ for Novell’s Silverlight Linux port. zdnet.com. Retrieved on 2007-10-13.
- ^ a b De Icaza, Miguel (2007-09-05). Microsoft/Novell Collaboration on Silverlight.. Retrieved on 2007-10-13.
- ^ The Novell-Microsoft Wheeler Dealers Speak. groklaw.net (2007-09-30). Retrieved on 2007-10-13.
- ^ http://www.microsoft.com/interop/msnovellcollab/moonlight.mspx
- ^ Rooney, Paula (2007-09-05). Moonlight to pump up Linux desktop, Microsoft’s OpenXML standards effort?. zdnet.com. Retrieved on 2007-10-13.
- ^ Ramji, Sam (2007-09-05). [http://port25.technet.com/archive/2007/09/05/silverlight-on-linux.aspx The Novell-Microsoft Wheeler Dealers Speak [ quote=After a great deal of work between the Moonlight and .NET teams, we’re ready to formally announce that we (Microsoft and Novell) will be bringing Silverlight to Linux (Sam Ramji is Director of Microsoft’s Open Source Software Lab)]. Retrieved on 2007-10-13.
- ^ Vaughan-Nichols, Steven J. (2007-10-03). Microsoft's Open-Source Trap for Mono. eweek.com. Retrieved on 2007-10-13.
- ^ De Icaza, Miguel (2007-10-05). A Journey Into the Dumb-o-Sphere. Retrieved on 2007-10-13.
