Microsoft Plans for Silverlight on Linux
8/10/2007
I have been working with Silverlight for well over a year now, even before Silverlight was announced to the public in any form. I have also been doing Silverlight (formerly WPF/E) presentations for over a year as well. Silverlight from the very beginning was very exciting to me. Silverlight currently is only available for Windows and Mac OSX. But one of the most common questions I am asked is, what about Linux?
Cross Platform
I often start my Silverlight sessions out by explaining what Microsoft typically means by cross platform. That is, it runs on Windows XP, Windows 2003, and Vista. However in the case of Silverlight, Microsoft truly does mean cross platform. While Silverlight currently is only available for Windows and Mac OSX, Silverlight is designed to be easily ported to any platform.
And Linux?
If Silverlight is designed to be so easily ported, then why is there no Linux support? To me it is simple, Silverlight is a desktop technology. Linux as a desktop operating system accounts for just over 1% of desktops. But worse yet, that 1.3% (July 30, 2007) is comprised of dozens of different Linux distros. Supporting Linux requires testing on at least half a dozen different distros to support a tiny user base.
Mono however has announced a project called Moonlight, which is basically a Mono supported implementation of Silverlight which of course will run on Linux. There is an interesting twist though from an article in SD Times: Microsoft Nurtures Linux Silverlight Port. Could it be that Microsoft does not want to expend resources to support all the varying Linux distros for such a small percentage by itself. But that Microsoft is lending its support to Mono to self enable them? I think that this is a purposeful and intended strategy. The end effect is that Silverlight becomes well supported on Linux without Microsoft having to do it themselves. Microsoft could just ignore Mono and let them proceed on their own, but providing a bit of support to the Mono guys makes sense. It helps Moonlight proceed faster, and will help to provide a better implementation.
The end result: Silverlight becomes more cross platform.
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