Moonlight
Frequently Asked Questions
- What are you announcing today?
- Novell and Microsoft are collaborating to deliver Moonlight, a Silverlight-compatible framework based on the Mono technology for hosting Silverlight rich interactive applications on Linux.
- What is Silverlight?
- Silverlight is a cross-browser, cross-platform plug-in for delivering the next generation of .NET-based media experiences and rich interactive applications (RIAs) for the Web. Silverlight offers a flexible programming model that supports AJAX, Microsoft Visual Basic .NET, C#, Python, and Ruby and integrates with existing Web applications. Silverlight media capabilities include fast delivery of high-quality audio and video to all major browsers including Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, and Windows Internet Explorer running on Mac OS, Microsoft Windows and now on Linux.
- How will Moonlight be delivered?
- Moonlight will be available as a single download from Novell which will include the browser plugin plus the Silverlight graphics engine and the Mono runtime. The codecs necessary to host Silverlight content on Linux will be available from Microsoft. The Moonlight installer will make obtaining the MSFT codecs a seamless step in the process.
- I thought the codecs were Microsoft proprietary technology. How do I get those for Moonlight?
- Microsoft will make these codecs freely available for Linux.
- How much will Moonlight cost?
- Similar to Silverlight on Windows, Moonlight will be freely available for all supported platforms.
- When will Moonlight be available?
- Moonlight version 1.0 will be available at the beginning of 2008.
- Will Moonlight be feature compatible with Silverlight on Windows?
- Yes.
- Can I use Microsoft's Silverlight development tools to build Moonlight applications?
- Yes.
- Will Moonlight be open source?
- The Moonlight browser plug-in, the graphics engine and Mono runtime which will be available from Novell are open source components. The necessary audio and video codecs are proprietary components.
- How are Microsoft and Novell collaborating to provide Moonlight?
- This collaboration between Microsoft and Novell is a formal engineering development program. Novell is bringing the .NET-based Silverlight framework to Mono, an open source framework for running .NET applications on multiple platforms including Linux. Microsoft is providing a version of the necessary codecs for Linux.
- Will Moonlight be available for Linux distributions other than Novell's SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop?
- Yes, Moonlight will be designed to run on most Linux distributions, on any platform that Mono supports.
- Why is Moonlight necessary when Flash already runs on Linux?
- Moonlight provides users and developers of rich media another platform for delivering content. Moonlight provides users additional choice when creating content or viewing web-based rich media content.
- Does this mean that Microsoft is officially endorsing Mono as an acceptable framework for running .NET applications on Linux?
- We are focused on enabling developers and customers to run Silverlight applications on Windows, Macintosh, and Linux operating systems. Beyond this collaboration with Novell on the Moonlight project, Microsoft currently does not have plans to endorse Mono broadly.
- How is this agreement related to the existing technical collaboration between Microsoft and Novell?
- The Moonlight collaboration is a natural extension of our ongoing cooperation with Microsoft. This work highlights the cooperative nature of the work between Novell and Microsoft that demonstrates that when two industry leaders work together on behalf of customers and technology users, good things happens.
- What are the IP implications of running Moonlight in other Linux distributions other than SUSE Linux Enterprise?
- There are none. This agreement delivers a functional Silverlight implementation for Linux that Novell will distribute. Moonlight will be available for Linux users on any distribution.
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