Rich Fiscus
5 Sep 2007 6:11
Today Microsoft will be releasing Silverlight 1.0. Silverlight is the web video plug-in they hope will compete with Adobe's Flash.
"We're finally shipping the plug-in," said Parimal Desphande, group product manager for the User Experience Platform and Tools team at Microsoft
They're also planning to participate in a Novell project to port Sliverlight to Linux. Moonlight 1.0, as the project has been dubbed, should be done within six months according to Miguel de Icaza, vice president of the developer platform at Novell.
"We will be distributing Moonlight for all the major distributions and provide both packages in RPM and DEB [distribution] forms as well as having a Mozilla-based installer for those not familiar with the packaging system in Linux," de Icaza said.
An upgrade to version 1.1 is already in the works for the fledgling software. While the initial 1.0 release focuses on delivering content to the user's computer, the next release is expected to include more interactive features and .NET development.
According to Desphande, the list of Silverlight supporters includes World Wrestling Entertainment, Entertainment Tonight, Break.com, and the Home Shopping Network.
Just last month, Flash maker Adobe released a new version of that software that supports high definition video.
Source: InfoWorld