"Microsoft today released to the web Silverlight 1.0, a cross-browser, cross-platform plug-in for delivering richer user experiences on the Web. In addition, Microsoft will work with Novell to deliver Silverlight support for Linux, called Moonlight, and based on the project started on mono-project.com."
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Member since:2007-06-28
what miguel *did* and what he *does* are two different things. even though gnome is not my preferred desktop, i can see its historic value. (no, i don't use KDE, either)
these aren't 'paranoid meanderings', i'm an unapologetic, realistic observer who has seen one particular vendor manhandle an entire technological ecosystem for around two decades.
you really sum it up pretty well yourself. 'currently pretty open' is not good enough. microsoft isn't being 'cool' for a change. they are still a 'profit at any cost' megacorp. the ISO b.s. of this past week or so evidences that pretty well.
they deserve zero control over any standard that extends outside of their OS sandbox. i can't understand why anybody in their right mind thinks it's in any way beneficial to chase a moving target.
edit: almost forgot, you say that the Gnash guys don't hate Adobe. i know. that's why i specifically said in my post that 'their products have been reverse engineered / reimplemented over and over by truly neutral parties'. the mono/novell guys are *not* neutral. obviously.
Edited 2007-09-05 21:19
Member since:
2007-07-10
Miguel and his cache of followers created the first free desktop for linux. When he started the GNOME project with his cache of followers, there was only CDE (ugly, proprietary) and KDE (which was also non-free at the time). That move opened the floodgates for a truly free linux desktop, and is one of the most beneficial actions OSS has seen.
Rich internet services like silverlight are not room for great innovation. They should be a commodity, and there is nothing better in a commodity space to have open competition - so innovation in content can take place anywhere, anytime. If your paranoid meanderings are gonna stop you from watching the future youtubes or interacting with services we can't even think of yet, all because you distrust a (currently pretty open) specification from microsoft, then that's idiotic. The Gnash devs don't hate flash/adobe, they just wanted to be able to use it openly and spent the time and effort to reverse engineer it. Now, because Microsoft is being 'cool' for a change, the Silverlight devs don't have to - all they gotta do is code.