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Moonlight - Run Silverlight on Linux

mono-project.com — Moonlight is an open source implementation of Silverlight, primarily for Linux and other Unix/X11 based operating systems. Download it here.

Who dugg this? Made popular Feb 14, 2009

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  • Kral, on 02/14/2009, -14/+63It's a trap.
  • netengineer10, on 02/13/2009, -3/+45Moonlight 1.0 is out, but that won't support Silverlight 2.0 applications. You will have to wait for Moonlight 2.0 to come out in order to be able to watch Netflix Streaming and a lot of other popular applications.
  • cmost, on 02/14/2009, -6/+36Okay, this story is very misleading. The Moonlight plugin is all but useless for playing Silverlight content on Linux. I should know...I've tried to do it at length. The plugin is Moonlight 1.0 which should play Silverlight 1.0 content; not 2.0 content like the SuperBowl and Olympics. Second, some web pages with Silverlight content actually determine which version of Silverlight and Internet Explorer you're running and if its not the right combination (which it never will be on Linux) then the site refuses to play. Moonlight on Linux is not worth the time right now. Wait until the next version. By then, we'll have Moonlight 2.0 and Microsoft will have bumped Silverlight to 2.x or 3.0 and we'll still be behind the game. Long live Adobe Flash!!!
  • inactive, on 02/14/2009, -7/+36What ever you say about MS, you can't deny that Adobe needs some serious competition. An Adobe monopoly is just as bad as a Microsoft monopoly. Have you noticed how Adobe bundles AIR with their reader installation? I am surprised they haven't been sued yet. From what I hear (from unbiased developers) Silverlight is really really good.
  • inactive, on 02/14/2009, -4/+24MS has been actively helping out with the mono project.
  • marnaq, on 02/14/2009, -4/+19And MS suing us for patents we don't break.
  • inactive, on 02/14/2009, -4/+19Of course, for a long time Linux flash was behind Windows flash as well.
  • rafe101, on 02/14/2009, -0/+14Seriously? Finally Netflix? I'll believe it when I see it.
  • cyssero, on 04/18/2009, -2/+16Exactly, how quickly people forget that until a couple of versions ago - Flash on Linux was severely crippled. Adobe literally skipped a release or two and there were all sorts of problems before they finally got their act together.

    Now, Microsoft has just released it's second version of Silverlight, and they're taking heat for it. Let Silverlight get a bit more popular and I guarantee by the 3rd version it will be working simultaneously on Windows and Linux (assuming the Moonlight project gets the same amount of interest).
  • spyd3rweb, on 02/14/2009, -3/+14I've not seen anything that uses it yet.
  • e68895f, on 02/14/2009, -4/+14There still seems to be a believe that silverlight is some sort of a "flash killer", this could not be further from the truth. I'm just finishing a very complicated animation project with silverlight and it was full of pain.
    Animation is very jerky and to make even the smallest changes you need coders help. The programs to create the content are something that flash had in version 4 years ago. And the xaml-format makes very big files that take forever to load. And its still missing basic animation features like motion-paths!!

    Sure silverlight is good for coders, but for animators and graphics designers it will never replace adobe products like photoshop. Microsoft will not sue moonlight as long as it benefits them, but as soon as they have a monopoly, this project will be taken to court. Mark my words..





  • ace214, on 02/14/2009, -2/+11I know... I'm afraid that by the time Moonlight 2.0 comes out, everything will be Silverlight 3.0....... I wouldn't put it past Microsoft.
  • CaptObvious, on 02/14/2009, -8/+17I really can't wait for 2.0
  • MethodOne, on 02/14/2009, -0/+8@dandonia: Moonlight is only for Linux on x86 32-bit and 64-bit (your PC) and PS3 uses the PowerPC architecture. That means no Netflix streaming.
  • poisonborz, on 02/14/2009, -3/+11Hard to believe Microsoft would sue Moonlight since they are direct supporters of the project... I would even believe that it was them who indirectly founded it.
  • dandonia, on 02/14/2009, -0/+7Without everyone getting up in arms about it - would that bring Netflix to the PS3 via linux?
  • dandonia, on 02/14/2009, -3/+10The more systems that can run Silverlight the faster it will be adopted. Why wouldn't they help?
  • inactive, on 02/14/2009, -1/+8What do you mean by openly support a rival operating system? MS writes software for a variety of platforms. They have no problem writing software for their rivals OSX.
  • inactive, on 02/14/2009, -1/+7Adobe AIR has NOTHING to do with Adobe Reader. When you install the Reader, you are FORCED to install AIR.
  • adkenc, on 02/14/2009, -2/+7besides netflix and the olympics
  • Strongwings, on 02/14/2009, -1/+6somebody tell me WHY YOU WOULD EVER WANT THIS!?
  • compu73rg33k, on 02/14/2009, -1/+6Why do people install Adobe Reader? Seriously, 200MB for a ***** PDF reader? That should give you a clue. Foxit Reader is less than 2 or 3MB and does everything Adobe Reader does.

    Adobe is only good for Flash and Photoshop (and once FOSS flash projects catch up in functionality, I can't wait to drop them all together). Photoshop is a great program, but I'm not a graphics designer. GIMP suffices when I need to do image editing.
  • MethodOne, on 02/14/2009, -0/+4Works fine on Arch 32-bit.
  • briarpatch, on 02/14/2009, -3/+7Until Microsoft--like Adobe--admits that Linux is a legitimate consumer platform and develops for it, then efforts like this are doomed to go nowhere. Whys should it even be necessary to write a hacked up version of a Microsoft application? They still behave like the universe belongs to them only. That time is past.
  • ThantiK, on 02/14/2009, -3/+7@ senfo - not according to EU antitrust rulings. Microsoft has been ordered to be more open about implementation of "standards" to allow interoperability between mac and linux.
  • lorddazzer, on 02/14/2009, -4/+8"Have you noticed how Adobe bundles AIR with their reader installation?"

    How is this any different from a program that bundles Java runtimes with their Java applications?

    Have you noticed how Microsoft bundles IE with every operating system, and is impossible to remove. Even if you do so with hacks, it cripples other parts of the system or other applications that rely on the existence of IE.
  • beclamide, on 02/14/2009, -4/+8Sort of...
    It allows people to create rich internet applications using the .NET framework. It's like Flash and Flex combined and it's very powerful.
  • tux11, on 02/14/2009, -0/+3i tried moonlight but it doesn't work with netflix wich is the entire reason i tried it. no luck. better wait for version 2 like every one is saying.
  • inactive, on 02/14/2009, -1/+4Adobe also bought Cool Edit Pro and renamed it to Adobe Audition.
  • TheSabre, on 02/14/2009, -0/+3overninek, AIR has something to do with Reader. It powers Acrobat.com, a website similar Google Docs and Spreadsheets, Microsoft Office Live, etc. Acrobat.com "comes with" Reader (I use that lightly because it is a web app, but you get a shortcut and the Reader installation gives you information about signing up). To use Acrobat.com, you must have AIR. So there IS a relationship. However, I do agree that there should be a standalone Reader installation and a Reader+Acrobat.com installation. But to say that it has NOTHING to do with Reader is false because Reader and Acrobat.com are sibling services.
  • senfo, on 02/14/2009, -2/+5To be perfectly honest, at the browser, Silverlight and Flash closely resemble each other. As a development platform, however, I tend to gravitate towards Silverlight because, as a .NET developer, I find myself feeling a lot more "at home" developing in C# than I do developing in AS3. I know very little about Flex, but I tend to like XAML for a number of reasons. Mainly because it's an extensible markup language, which closely resembles HTML. This makes it easy for designers to jump in and learn it really fast. And since the markup and code are separated, I find that it makes it easier for developers and designers to work together, each one focusing on their own strong areas.

    Just my two cents.
  • inactive, on 02/14/2009, -1/+4Looks like you forgot about Adobe buying out Macromedia.
  • Myztry, on 02/15/2009, -0/+2Moonlight is important because even though it is an unwanted duplication, the majority of people are going to get Silverlight via Windows 7 bundling whether they want it or not.
    The pseudo cross platform nature will be important for diverting the fact there are no competition laws for industry control points like there is with media ownership. An OS really is the 'press conglomerates' when it comes to manipulating 'popular' opinion.
  • AmbyR00, on 02/14/2009, -0/+2Anything that ties you to one provider only is bad, whether it's from Adobe, Microsoft, IBM or even RedHat.
  • ldog, on 02/14/2009, -1/+3I don't doubt people are building things in silverlight, but what are these other popular apps you're talking about?
  • hpychan, on 02/14/2009, -0/+2Silverlight is wonderful application platform for developers. For designers, who need to use MS expression Blend, is one of the worse thing in earth. The Blend is like alpha software in many different ways.
  • mikedoth, on 02/14/2009, -1/+3I hope they add this to HaikuOS!
  • dandonia, on 02/15/2009, -0/+2Thanks for the reply.
  • inactive, on 02/15/2009, -1/+3Flash on Linux is still crippled, they just up the version number and ignore the major bugs.
  • TheSabre, on 02/14/2009, -0/+2Not EVERYONE does things the same way you do. Some people use Acrobat Reader to collaborate on documents. We use it where I work rather than emailing PDFs back and forth and having dozens of copies floating around. The collaboration is performed through the Acrobat.com service on the backend with AIR but still uses the Reader interface. The collaboration tools are built into Reader. They are all functions of the same suite of tools.

    You can't download IE and say that you don't want the RSS features in it. You can't download AIM and say that you don't want the webcam component, only the IM piece.
  • dxxvi, on 02/14/2009, -1/+3Beside Silverlight / Flash, there is something called JavaFx (http://javafx.com)
  • tubeguy, on 02/14/2009, -2/+4Just...why?
  • cappiello, on 02/15/2009, -0/+2Yes there is, and it's pretty attractive if you can leverage an existing java library for what you need to do.
  • inactive, on 02/14/2009, -5/+6I knowwwww....Watch it be used for ads we can't block.
  • silfiriel, on 02/14/2009, -8/+9to be honest I 'm not even sure what's the purpose of silverlight...
    it's the MS implementation of adobe flash, right?
  • effiejayx, on 02/14/2009, -1/+2silverwhat?... who needs that anyway...
  • AmbyR00, on 02/14/2009, -0/+1Gnash has passed Adobe Flash?
  • thenativeraver, on 02/14/2009, -0/+1http://www.foxitsoftware.com/downloads/
  • barius, on 02/14/2009, -0/+1...why?
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