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Novell to bring open source Silverlight clone to iPhone
You've surely heard of Silverlight, Microsoft's shinier and altogether more-fluffy answer to Flash. Silverlight is now at the stage where the only real feature it lacks is ubiquity -- the only real reason we keep using Flash is because the plug-in is installed on almost every computer in the world. Well, Microsoft wants to change that -- Microsoft wants Silverlight to be as prevalent as Flash. To that end, we just reported on Silverlight coming to Symbian phones -- and now it seems like the iPhone might also run Silverlight apps... but with Moonlight, Novell's open source, cross-platform Silverlight implementation.
This is big news because of the XNA and .NET support inherent in Silverlight and Moonlight. Last week you saw Microsoft demo the same game -- the same code -- running on Xbox, Windows 7 and Windows Phone 7 (damn I hate their naming scheme), and now Novell has shown the same game running on an iPhone (image on the right).
Novell is, in effect, usurping Microsoft. Microsoft might even be working on a Silverlight implementation for iPhone -- perhaps Novell is just jumping the gun and announcing their intention first. If Silverlight reaches smartphone ubiquity in 2010 or 2011, the desktop computer will surely follow.
Down with Flash, woo!
[via Technologizer]
Comments
16
Subscribe to commentsSikboyMar 14th 2010 12:12PM
We need Html 5, not another Flash wannabe. How can you get excited about this? Besides, Novell should be on real open source projects and stop being Microsoft little helper.
john.lewinSep 7th 2010 1:43PM
I use both, and while HTML5 is great, particularly in its ubiquity, if you are doing more than webpages with a little video or such HTML5 is not competitive. For proper applications -- the kinds of things that require data structures and engineering -- you need to be able to program as well as skin the pretty stuff.
On that front, the falloff from C#/Silverlight to say, PHP/HTML5 or HTML5/Java or the like is pretty sizable.
ScooterMar 14th 2010 12:10PM
As long as the end result is streaming Netflix on my iPhone/iPad, I don't care if it's Microsoft or Novell taking the credit.
araxaraMar 14th 2010 4:12PM
As it currently stands, Moonlight does not have Microsoft's DRM, which means that you won't be able to watch NetFlix on your iPhone. The Linux community has been complaining about this issue for some time. It doesn't seem that Microsoft is willing to open source their DRM.
BrJohnMar 14th 2010 1:59PM
@Sikboy:
As you know or should know, you cannot make sophisticated games with HTML 5. Neither will HTML 5 give you smooth streaming videos like Silverlight does. For that matter, even Flash today cannot give you that experience. Go and watch any video on the NBC Winter Olympic website on the Silverlight player and click anywhere on the timeline to virtually see instant video without any buffering at all. Even Youtube with Flash cannot give you that experience today!
Silverlight provides amazing user experience and is a clear winner from Microsoft after long time!
Matthew FabbMar 14th 2010 5:37PM
"For that matter, even Flash today cannot give you that experience."
Not yet, but it's part of Flash Player 10.1, currently in beta and likely to be released in a couple of months.
Any new video features that Adobe and Microsoft have been adding, the following company generally responds and includes it in the next version of their plugin.
Matthew FabbMar 14th 2010 10:19PM
I seriously doubt that Apple is allowing the Silverlight plugin to run on the iPhone. What Novel is likely doing, is compiling Silverlight .Net code to a native iPhone application. This is similar to what Adobe is doing with their iPhone packager that is supposed to come out with Flash CS5.
This means Silverlight applications will make it into the iTunes store for the iPhone, but visiting websites on the iPhone, that use Silverlight will still likely show the blue lego icon of missing plugin.
That said, Symbian is part of the Adobe's Open Screen Project and will also include the Flash Player 10.1. Flash is coming to all major cell phone companies except for the iPhone, so Microsoft still has some catch up to get Silverlight on other platforms to be on par with the Flash Player.
Sebastian AnthonyMar 14th 2010 8:13PM
Yeah, it will be very interesting to see if Silverlight/Moonlight becomes a browser plug-in or not.
Are there any examples of browser third-party plug-ins for the iPhone?
Matthew FabbMar 14th 2010 10:54PM
Nope, Apple has not allowed any plugins on the iPhone at all.
Also Apple's iPhone developer agreement specifically forbids developers from creating any virtual machine to run non-native code, which is what is needed for a plugin to work.
Which is why I think it's very doubtful that not Microsoft, but Nortel have managed to make a deal with Apple to get Moonlight onto the iPhone. I mean Apple won't even allow Java or JavaFx on the iPhone and that's all open source.
BrJohnMar 15th 2010 12:04AM
Microsoft will be releasing tools to create iphone applications using .NET code for developers. Now, behind the scenes it may be compiled to run as a native Apple iphone application. But that's ok. As for bringing Silverlight to iphone, this is happening already.
Matthew FabbMar 15th 2010 4:01PM
From: http://www.sdtimes.com/MONO_BRINGS_NET_TO_ANDROID/By_David_Worthington/About_ANDROID_and_MONO_and_NET/34199
"Novell also produces MonoTouch, an iPhone development tool that converts .NET applications into Objective-C to run as a native application on the handset."
I've seen other similar statements elsewhere and it's just as I thought. The Silverlight plugin is not being made available for the iPhone (which if it did ever happen, would likely be a deal between Microsoft and Apple not Novel and Apple) but instead an option to create native iPhone applications from Silverlight .Net code.
Sebastian AnthonyMar 15th 2010 8:36PM
Cheers for the clarifications :)
nikescarMar 14th 2010 7:35PM
Silverlight truely is one of the best things to come out of Redmond in a long time (W7 is great too).
Now, if only devs would use all of the functionality that SL provides.
ArashMar 15th 2010 12:01AM
Please do a little bit of research at least...
Silverlight and XNA have NOTHING to do with each other. They are two separate frameworks
Sebastian AnthonyMar 15th 2010 8:36PM
After seeing today's MIX10 keynote, do you still think the same thing? :P
john.lewinSep 8th 2010 1:37PM
Actually, I think you are missing the point. SL and XNA are different frameworks, but they are both available under MONO, and possibly or in a limited sense candidates to develop on Iphones/Ipads