Silverlight on Linux

Now this is interesting. Apparently, the Miguel de Icaza's team at the Mono project has implemented nearly all of Silverlight for Linux, and in record time (21 days!) I can only assume that this is a sanctioned project by Microsoft (it was developed by the Novell-sponsored Mono team and Novell and Microsoft appear to be in bed together quite a bit these days). It definitely goes a long way to addressing the initial criticism of the lack of cross-platform support in Silverlight.

What caught my attention is how quickly they were able to port it over from .Net to Mono. I wonder if Microsoft may actually stand a chance in wooing the Linux crowd with synchronized releases of Silverlight across all platforms?

Then again, what am I saying? How can they ever hope to woo the Linux crowd when Microsoft is out to destroy open source by demanding royalties from open source projects they claim infringe software patents that Microsoft owns? I wonder if Microsoft's smiley patent is part of this? Remember, honest coders don't use smileys in their code! Oh yes, and stay clear of XML too (Microsoft has patented XML serialization/deserialization) if you don't want lawyers at your door.

Regardless, it's a good thing that Adobe finally has the latest version of the player available for Linux and I'm sure that this new move by Novell/Microsoft will mean that we can expect synchronized releases of the Flash player across platforms in the future in order to Adobe to remain competitive. In other words, the only good thing I see about Microsoft's continued existence today is that it provides a competitor to Adobe and competition is a good thing that should benefit developers.

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