Microsoft SIlverlight Proposed For Ubuntu 14.04 LTS

[Bathroom Humor]

Not to be a nag here, but nothing about this (or anything else, for that matter) sounds like Canonical is working with MS on anything...
Not only was this proposal not officially endorsed by anyone working for Canonical (it looks like a community developer brought it up) but MS itself is moving away from silverlight, as far as I can tell. And so is Netflix, eventually. They stand to gain nothing from this, or anything else Canonical is working on.
And the browser plugin is probably not going to make it into the LTS, or maybe even at all into Ubuntu if the dependencies don't get worked out.

[DeepDayze]

I though Silverlight was dead? Even Microsoft has abandoned it.

Not totally abandoned as MS still issues updates to it, albeit security updates only at least as no new features been published as of late

[e8hffff]

And the browser plugin is probably not going to make it into the LTS, or maybe even at all into Ubuntu if the dependencies don't get worked out.

The Mono Project already had a sidekick called Moonlight, so the story hints at Microsoft coming to Linux with a native version.

[Herem]

The Mono Project already had a sidekick called Moonlight, so the story hints at Microsoft coming to Linux with a native version.

If you read past the title the article makes it pretty clear Pipelight is an Open Source project aimed at enabling use of Silverlight through Wine.

[DanLamb]

No DRM supoort should ever be enabled by default or natice to Linux

Tell that to the Steam fanatics on this site.

[Luke]

Steam does not require distro-level DRM support

Tell that to the Steam fanatics on this site.

Steam is an external application that RUNS under a distro, only SteamOS is a distro itself-and that is based on Debian with Steam installed. Since Steam was willing to create a package that can be run on unmodified distros, that means no distro had to add DRM suppport to get them to write a Linux version. Thus, all DRM support is confined to the Steam code itself, and no attempt can be made to block pulling sound or video off the bus, etc (no protected media paths). The only thing Hollywood-style DRM would offer Steam would be the power to prevent videos from being made of their games being played, so probably they were not even interested in that level of DRM.

A game is not like a movie, where a copy from the audio and video streams is a functional copy of the original work, thus no advantage to sabotaging the underlying OS. Steam seems to be like Pipelight, not like DRM modules for the browser, in this sense: all DRM code is confined to the DRM'ed application. I don't install Steam as I do not play paid games, but the packages I DO install have not been modified Windows-style to support DRM in an effort to attract Steam. Not only that, what DID have to happen was that graphics drivers had to improve, thus causing Steam to in a sense subsidize open-source gaming and 3d content creation.

[Bathroom Humor]

If you read past the title the article makes it pretty clear Pipelight is an Open Source project aimed at enabling use of Silverlight through Wine.

I was hoping he would take the time to read the whole article so I wouldn't need to explain it for him. But yea the story has nothing to do with advancing the development of silverlight.