Moonlight 3.0 Approaches With New Features

[V!NCENT]

Is cross-platform a dirty word? Great discussion thread here, but I sense a puritanical element that would prefer to ignore that the world as a whole is a mixed environment.

I think you are a little too naive.

1. Microsoft pays Novel big $$$$
2. Novel thinks *Want us to make a pile of shit we are not going to use, even for ourselves, but you are willing to give us a shitload of $$$? Realy? DEAL! *
3. Microsoft is now supporting FLOSS on paper
4. This is not going to work ofcourse, because Microsoft can update their Silvershizzle .net stuff as much and as fast as possible so Mono and moonlight will always be behind and not compatible.

In the end Novel gets money, Microsoft gets to not be evil (but only in the sense of court), Microsoft can get governments to switch to the 'cross compatible silverlight and .net' and if they can't it is Novel's fault, but Novel doesn't care because they are not responsible for anything and they swim in the money. Linux users are fscked.

Don't believe everything you read without thinking critically about it.

[monraaf]

Is cross-platform a dirty word? Great discussion thread here, but I sense a puritanical element that would prefer to ignore that the world as a whole is a mixed environment.

Cross-platform isn't a dirty word, but you don't need Moonlight or Mono for that. And given the past hostilities from Microsoft against Linux (With Bill Gates himself talking about a Jihad) do you think it's a wise thing for Linux to rely on Microsoft technologies?

Let's see what fedora has to say about Moonlight:

There are serious concerns about Moonlight, due to Microsoft and Novell's public statements around its inclusion in their "covenant". In addition to that Groklaw has posted a FAQ from Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC) on the issues with this patent "covenant". Accordingly, this technology (with, or without codecs), is considered too risky, and is not acceptable for inclusion in Fedora.

https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/ForbiddenItems#Moonlight

IANAL, but when I read things such as:

Microsoft reserves the right to update (including discontinue) the foregoing covenant pursuant to the terms of the Moonlight for Linux Collaboration Agreement between Novell and Microsoft that was publicly announced on September 5, 2007

http://www.microsoft.com/interop/msnovellcollab/moonlight.mspx

It looks to me like they can pull the kill switch any time on Moonlight.