Linked by Thom Holwerda on Thu 9th Aug 2007 21:11 UTC, submitted by rx182
When Microsoft chief software architect Ray Ozzie unveiled Silverlight at MIX07, he vowed that it would be a cross-platform technology. It appears as if the software giant is making good on that pledge: SD Times has learned that some of Microsoft's top developers have provided technical guidance for a Linux implementation of Silverlight.
Permalink for comment 262179
To read all comments associated with this story, please click here.
To read all comments associated with this story, please click here.
Member since:
2005-07-08
First of all, I'm fully aware of Silverlight's technical merit. Look at my other post in this thread.
Sure, Microsoft could make it so that the premium Silverlight development tools are only available for Windows. Then they tie the developers to Windows. But that won't get the consumers, which are the vast majority of the market.
A web development platform can't be used to sell Windows to consumers. As long as the content is available on other platforms, it becomes a non-issue for consumers. And Microsoft needs the content to be available on other platforms. Otherwise Flash wins.
But more importantly, the MS/Novell deal probably does nothing to change the Moonlight/Mono patent situation. It specifically excludes "Clone Products", including (but not limited to) Wine, OpenOffice, and OpenXchange. Mono could very well be considered a Clone Product as well, and therefore it could fall outside the bounds of the patent covenant.
I'm telling you, the patent covenants are NOT what they seem. The Foundry Products clause is even more troubling...