Sliverlight for Linux?!
by
Charlie Bess
In an article titled Moonlight in Paris an effort by the mono project to expand the appeal of Siverlight was described. It looks like a real effort to make the Rich Internet application (RIA) tool more multiplatform than just running on the Mac and Windows environments. The article describes how a group of developers demonstrated Silverlight-based multimedia running on a Linux-based system (the project was called Moonlight). Microsoft hasn't announced plans for a Linux-compatible version of Silverlight (yet). The story goes into a little more detail about the scope of this coding spike (placing a stake in the ground for future work).
The flexibility and capability of an increased market for Silverlight will continue to expand the appeal of the composite application activities that Microsoft has underway. Tools like this will provide a much richer interaction environment, and hopefully be less fragile than the fat-client approach of the past. Being able to use delayed assembly approaches where the user interface issues are separated from the business issues have been a goal for many organizations for years (decades?) and techniques like this will keep the interaction rich without giving up greater separation – but only if it can be widely accessed.
