Silverlight To Run On Linux This Week

I have no idea what Silverlight is, what it does or if there is something similar in FOSS. I guess I need to read about it to find out. Could someone give a brief description and whether it is worth while?

Easy. It's Microsoft's attempt to replace Flash, just as they created XPS to replace PDF. I guess Microsoft is going after Adobe big time. Perhaps it's time Adobe stopped putting all their eggs in the Windows platform basket.

Thanks Sander,

I just briefly looked at an MS presentation and it seems pretty good. Then again, MS knows how to present and market their products. I will download it and test it out. I do see that Adobe has big competition to contend with though, and I believe they have been warming up to FOSS.

> I guess Microsoft is going after Adobe big time.

I'm no fan of Microsoft, but it will be funny watching Adobe get slapped around.

Silverlight is actually a very good take on flash. The best thing about it is that the code is licensed under a GNU GPL compatible license. In addition it's seriously easy to develop Silverlight presentations using C#.

If Adobe had any sense at all, and I'm sure corporate types like them don't, they would cosey up to the FOSS world real quick.

Silverlight is GPLed? Microsoft actually GPLed something? Or something out of MS got GPLed?

Elizabeth! I'm comin' to join ya!

Not GPLed, a GPL compatible license

Quoting:the code is licensed under a GNU GPL compatible license.

Many be for now. Knowing MS history, and once Adobe is out of business, that will change pretty quick.

MS simply can't be trusted, period.

Quoting:If Adobe had any sense at all, ...they would cosey up to the FOSS world real quick.

Absolutely. If they don't, they wont survive.

If Adobe had any sense at all...they wouldn't have people thrown into jail and held for over two months without bail. May they melt down into a stinky slimy puddle.

Quoting:If Adobe had any sense at all...they wouldn't have people thrown into jail and held for over two months without bail.

News to me. When/where did this happen?

Ohhhh you younguns. *sighs and dishes up more stewed prunes.*

These tell the tale: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dmitry_Sklyarov http://www.freesklyarov.org/

Adobe does a tap-dance around the whole deal, but the truth is they pressed for an arrest. It's likely that nobody would have cared if Adobe had not made a big deal about it.

OK, that rang my bell. Now I remember the whole mess.

BTW, If I were a youngun I would have a better memory. :^{)

TC -

Even Microsoft can be the good guy by comparison...

Maybe Adobe has learned.

By the same token, if MS wants to put out free software that meets the FSF definition of free, I am willing to view it as a good deed by a bad actor. History is full of robber barons who turned towards philanthropy to burnish their images. I doubt that the poor refused their money.

Quoting:Many be for now. Knowing MS history, and once Adobe is out of business, that will change pretty quick.

So what. It's in the Wild. They can't rescind the License on the code that's already been released. So no matter what Microsoft do in the future the technology is freely available.

The worst Microsoft can do is what they've always done. make tweaks so that their version is incompatible with the open version, but that strategy is paying them smaller dividends as time goes on.

Quoting:So what. It's in the Wild

I haven't read their license terms and I don't intend to. I would use any other framework but MS. That is how much I trust them.

Now, Have you read the terms yourself? Are you sure there are no deceptions, tricks, or legal traps? Digging deeper one usually finds them hidden some where.

I am having trouble figuring out where this GPL-like license is and exactly what it covers.

I've been able to see the Microsoft Permissive license for some Silverlight application code snippets, but the Silverlight plugin itself -- at least the one from MIcrosoft -- seems anything but GPL friendly.

Quoting:Now, Have you read the terms yourself?

Yes. It's the Microsoft Permissive license, which is FSF approved as GPL compatible, which means there are no gotchas such as you are thinking of. This is why Miguel and co have been able to take the Silverlight code and use that as the basis of their Moonight.

I read the license because Miguel claimed Silverlight was licensed under a GPL compatible license, so I went to Microsoft's website and checked the License terms.

Doesn't this sounds like some kind of paranoid comedy skit:

lost man in the desert: "I am dying of thirst...help...." wandering Microsoftie: "Here, have some of my water." lost man in the desert: "Oh no no no, my friend, you're not going to trick me that easily."

That's some reputation our MS friends have earned!

> That's some reputation our MS friends have earned!

The sad part is that not only have their past acts legitimately earned that reputation, they're working hard at maintaining it.

Quoting:The worst Microsoft can do is what they've always done. make tweaks so that their version is incompatible with the open version, but that strategy is paying them smaller dividends as time goes on.

It's probably simpler. They can simply push out the next version of Silverlight under a different license. FOSS would be stuck on an old version (the last one that was GPL compatible) while everyone else starts using the new version. Microsoft is the copyright holder so they can change the license at will.