Microsoft Silverlight
Microsoft Silverlight (or simply Silverlight) is a deprecated[5] application framework for writing and running rich Internet applications, similar to Adobe Flash. A plugin for Silverlight is still available for some browsers. While early versions of Silverlight focused on streaming media, later versions supported multimedia, graphics, and animation, and gave support to developers for CLI languages and development tools. Silverlight was also one of the two application development platforms for Windows Phone, but web pages using Silverlight did not run on the Windows Phone or Windows Mobile versions of Internet Explorer, as there was no Silverlight plugin for Internet Explorer on those platforms.[6]
Developer(s) | Microsoft Corporation |
---|---|
Initial release | September 5, 2007 |
Final release | 5.1.50918.0[1] (January 15, 2019 ) [±] |
Preview release | None [±] |
Operating system | Microsoft Windows, macOS, and Symbian OS[2][3] |
Platform | IA-32 and x86-64[4] |
Type | Application framework, run-time environment and multimedia framework |
License | Freeware |
Website | www |
Microsoft plans to terminate support for Silverlight on Internet Explorer 11 on October 12, 2021, the last remaining web browser still supporting Silverlight. It is supported on Windows 8.1 and later and Windows Server 2012 and later, and e.g. Windows POSReady 7 and Windows Thin PC 7, while e.g. Windows 7 and earlier do not get security updates.
History
Introduction
From the initial launch in 2007, reviewers compared the product to (since then discontinued) Adobe's Flash.[7][8]
Adoption
According to statowl.com, Microsoft Silverlight had a penetration of 64.2% in May 2011. Usage on July 2010 was 53.6%, whereas as of May 2011 market leader Adobe Flash was installed on 95.3% of browsers, and Java was supported on 76.5% of browsers.[9] Support of these plugins is not mutually exclusive; one system can support all three.
Silverlight was used to provide video streaming for the NBC coverage of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing,[10] the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver,[11] and the 2008 conventions for both major United States political parties.[12] Silverlight was also used by Amazon Video and Netflix for their instant video streaming services,[13][14] but Netflix said in its Tech Blog in 2013 that, since Microsoft had announced Silverlight's end-of-life, they would be moving to HTML5 video.[15]
Demise
Industry observers had announced the death of Silverlight as early as 2011.[16] Internally, even proponents of the technology thought Extensible Application Markup Language as a concept was a bad idea from the start.[17]
In 2012, Microsoft deprecated Silverlight for HTML5 in Windows 8,[17] but as late as the beginning of 2015, it was not clear what Microsoft's official position was on the future of Silverlight as a technology.[18]
In July of 2015, a Microsoft blog post finally clarified matters: "...we encourage companies that are using Silverlight for media to begin the transition to DASH/MSE/CENC/EME based designs".[5] Microsoft plans to terminate Silverlight support on October 12, 2021.[19] Support for IE7–8 was removed between 2014 and 2016, depending on the OS.[20] Support for IE9 and IE10 has also ended[20] "or though [sic] the support lifecycle of the underlying browsers,[21] whichever is shorter."[19] There is no Silverlight plugin available for Microsoft Edge.[5][20] It has not been supported by Google Chrome since September 2015[20][22] or by Firefox since March 2017.[23]
As of January 2021, about 0.03% of sites used Silverlight,[24] 2.2% used the discontinued Adobe Flash,[25] and less than 0.015% use Java (client-side; server-side 3.2% use Java).[26][27]
Overview
Silverlight provides a retained mode graphics system similar to Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), and integrates multimedia, graphics, animations, and interactivity into a single run-time environment. In Silverlight applications, user interfaces are declared in Extensible Application Markup Language (XAML) and programmed using a subset of the .NET Framework. XAML can be used for marking up the vector graphics and animations. Silverlight can also be used to create Windows Sidebar gadgets for Windows Vista.[28]
Silverlight supports H.264 video,[29] Advanced Audio Coding, Windows Media Video (WMV), Windows Media Audio (WMA), and MPEG Layer III (MP3) media content[30] across all supported browsers without requiring Windows Media Player, the Windows Media Player ActiveX control, or Windows Media browser plug-ins. Because Windows Media Video 9 is an implementation of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) VC-1 standard, Silverlight also supports VC-1 video. According to the end user license agreement VC-1 and H.264 are only licensed for the "personal and non-commercial use of a consumer".[31] Silverlight makes it possible to dynamically load Extensible Markup Language (XML) content that can be manipulated through a Document Object Model (DOM) interface, a technique that is consistent with conventional Ajax techniques. Silverlight exposes a Downloader object which can be used to download content, like scripts, media assets, or other data, as may be required by the application.[32] With version 2, the programming logic can be written in any .NET language, including some nuclear evolution of common dynamic programming languages like IronRuby and IronPython.[33]
A free software implementation (now abandoned)[34] named Moonlight, developed by Novell in cooperation with Microsoft, was released to bring Silverlight version 1 and 2 functionality to Linux, FreeBSD, and other open source platforms, although some Linux distributions did not include it, citing redistribution and patent concerns.[35] However, in May 2012, Moonlight was abandoned because of its lack of popularity.[36]
Supported platforms
Over the course of about five years Microsoft released five versions with varying platform support: The first version was released in 2007, and the fifth (and final) major version on May 8, 2012. It is compatible with later versions of Internet Explorer web browser on Microsoft Windows (except Windows RT) operating systems,[37] with Safari on Apple macOS, and with mobile devices using the Windows Mobile[38] and Symbian (Series 60)[39] platforms.
Cross-platform Mozilla Firefox support for Silverlight was removed in Firefox 52 released in March 2017 when Mozilla removed support for NPAPI plugins,[40][41] bringing it in-line with the removal of NPAPI plugin support in Google Chrome.[42][43]
Desktop computers
Silverlight requires an x86 processor with Streaming SIMD Extensions (SSE) support. Supported processors include the Intel Pentium III and up, the AMD Athlon XP and up, and newer AMD Durons.
The following table presents an availability and compatibility matrix of Silverlight versions for various operating systems and web browsers.
This version of Silverlight is currently supported on the given platform + browser combination. |
Silverlight support on the given platform + browser combination has expired. |
No Silverlight version has ever been supported on the given platform + browser combination. |
The given platform + browser combination does not exist. |
Web browser | Internet Explorer 6 SP1 or later | Internet Explorer 7 | Internet Explorer 8 and 9 | Internet Explorer 10 | Internet Explorer 11 | Firefox | Safari | Chrome | Edge | Opera |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Windows 10 | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | 5 | None, since Firefox 52[41][47] | 1, 2 | None, since Chrome 45[42][43] | None | None[48] |
Windows 8.1 Windows Server 2012 or later |
N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | 5 | None, since Firefox 52 | 1, 2 | None, since Chrome 45 | None | None |
Windows 8 | N/A | N/A | N/A | 5 | N/A | None, since Firefox 52 | 1, 2 | None, since Chrome 45 | None | None |
Windows 7 Windows Server 2008 R2 |
N/A | N/A | 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 | None | 5 | None, since Firefox 52 | 1, 2 | None, since Chrome 45 | None | None |
Windows Vista Windows Server 2008 |
N/A | 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 | 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 | N/A | N/A | 1, 2, 3, 4, 5[note 1] | 1, 2 | None, since Chrome 45 | N/A | None |
Windows XP Windows Server 2003 |
1, 2, 3, 4 | 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 | 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 | N/A | N/A | 1, 2, 3, 4, 5[note 1] | 1, 2 | None, since Chrome 45 | N/A | None |
Windows 2000 (KB891861 required) |
2, 3, 4 | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | 2 | N/A | N/A | None |
macOS (Intel) | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | None, since Firefox 52 | None, since Safari 12 | None, since Chrome 45 | None | None |
Ubuntu Linux | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | None, since Firefox 52 | N/A | None, since Chrome 45 | N/A | None |
Support for Opera had been promised since May 3, 2007, when David Storey, the Chief Web Opener at Opera, revealed a Microsoft poster for MIX conference that had shown Opera integration as a part of Silverlight 1.1.[51] However, Opera was never officially supported by Silverlight.
On Linux and FreeBSD, the functionality was available via Moonlight and Pipelight,[52][53] though both projects have since been discontinued. Moonlight is available for the major Linux distributions, with support for Firefox, Konqueror, and Opera browsers, provided it was obtained through Novell.[54] Miguel de Icaza has expressed an interest in working with developers from other operating systems (BSD, Solaris) and other browsers (Konqueror, WebKit and Opera) to ensure that Moonlight works fine on their systems.[55] Availability of Moonlight version 1.0 for FreeBSD was announced in March 2009,[56] but has since been reported not to actually work.[57] As of 2011, the current version of Moonlight (4 Preview 1) does not officially work on new versions of Firefox (newer than 3.x) on GNU/Linux-based operating systems. However, it can be installed in an unofficial way (for example using the Add-on Compatibility Reporter add-on) and with Firefox 11 it works correctly when installed. As noted above, the Moonlight project was abandoned in May 2012.
A browser plugin named Pipelight used to provide Silverlight access. Pipelight requires browser support for NPAPI plugins, which newer versions of Firefox, Chrome, and Opera have dropped. As of 2018, the Pipelight project has been discontinued.[58]
Mobile devices
Silverlight was not available on Android or iOS, the most prevalent operating systems on the mobile market.
Silverlight was the primary development environment for Windows Phone (that is by now discontinued) and is based on Silverlight 4. For previous versions of Windows Mobile, the first Community Technology Preview (CTP) for Windows Mobile 6 was expected in the second quarter of 2008, but it still has not been officially announced. Microsoft has stopped focusing on bringing Silverlight to Windows Mobile 6.x.[59] Nokia announced plans to make Silverlight for Mobile available for S60 on Symbian OS, as well as for Series 40 devices and Nokia internet tablets[60][61] (while it later sold the business to Microsoft and now sells Android tablets and will sell Alcatel-Lucent branded smartphones). Silverlight for Mobile supports Silverlight 2 content and .NET languages.[38] Silverlight for Windows Phone 7.5 is based on Silverlight 4.[62]
Development tools
Silverlight applications could be written in any .NET programming language. As such, any development tools which can be used with .NET languages can work with Silverlight, provided they can target the Silverlight CoreCLR for hosting the application, instead of the .NET Framework CLR. Microsoft has positioned Microsoft Expression Blend as a companion tool to Visual Studio for the design of Silverlight User Interface applications. Visual Studio can be used to develop and debug Silverlight applications. To create Silverlight projects and let the compiler target CoreCLR, Visual Studio requires the Silverlight Tools for Visual Studio.[63]
A Silverlight control is a ZIP format file with extension .XAP containing a list of one or more .NET managed assemblies (.DLL files) along with the AppManifest.XAML file containing this list along with the entry point (class and assembly). It can be hosted in any HTML file using an object tag, for example:
<object data="data:application/x-silverlight-2," type="application/x-silverlight-2" width="100%" height="100%">
<param name="source" value="MySilverLightControl.xap"/>
</object>
A Silverlight project contains the Silverlight.js and CreateSilverlight.js files which initializes the Silverlight plug-in for use in HTML pages, a XAML file for the UI, and code-behind files for the application code. Silverlight applications are debugged in a manner similar to ASP.NET applications. Visual Studio's CLR Remote Cross Platform Debugging feature can be used to debug Silverlight applications running on a different platform as well.[64]
In conjunction with the release of Silverlight 2, Eclipse was added as a development tool option.[65]
Licensing
An April 2007 PC World report, suggested that Microsoft intended to release certain parts of Silverlight source code as open source software,[66] but a week later Sam Ramji, director of platform technology strategy at Microsoft, contradicted the rumors by confirming that the company had no plans to open Silverlight.[67] Some controls that ship with Silverlight are available under the Microsoft Public License as a part of a separate project known as the Silverlight Toolkit.[68]
Silverlight's proprietary nature is a concern to competition since it may harm the open nature of the World Wide Web. Advocates of free software are also concerned Silverlight could be another example of Microsoft's embrace, extend, and extinguish strategy.[69] Both Microsoft Silverlight and Adobe Flash are proprietary.[70] Flash's file formats are publicly documented standards,[71][72] as are Silverlight's.[73][74] Silverlight, like other web technologies, uses patent-encumbered audio and video codecs.
Mono Moonlight implementation
The Mono Team abandoned development of Moonlight, a free and open-source implementation of both the Silverlight 1 and 2 runtimes.[75] Development was discontinued in 2012 due to the poor acceptance of Silverlight and the restrictions imposed by Microsoft.[76]
The project had been officially supported by Microsoft which,[52] under an agreement with Novell, made not-publicly-available additional specifications, access to the Silverlight Base Class Library APIs, binary codecs and test cases available to the Mono team.[53][77]
The "covenant" under which Novell was granted this exclusive access also specified conditions incompatible with the licensing that covers most free and open source software. As examples, it specifically required that the software must have been "obtained directly from Novell or through an Intermediate Recipient" and that it must be "not licensed under GPLv3 or a Similar License".[54] Some free software proponents criticized the covenant.[78]
Silverlight was criticized for not living up to its cross-platform operating system compatibility promises, especially on Linux systems, compared to its extensive support on Apple and Microsoft desktops for Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Chrome. Although Microsoft was officially collaborating on the Moonlight project, Bruce Chizen, CEO of Adobe Systems, which sells the competing proprietary Flash platform, questioned "the commitment of Microsoft to keep the Silverlight platform compatible with other OS besides Windows".[79] His concerns are based on "examples from history" where he said that Microsoft had launched products with promises of ongoing cross-platform compatibility that no longer apply, for example Internet Explorer for UNIX and Windows Media Player for Mac.
Relationship to existing web standards
In 2007, California and several other U.S. states asked a district judge to extend most of Microsoft's antitrust case settlement for another five years,[80] citing "a number of concerns, including the fear that Microsoft could use the next version of Windows to 'tilt the playing field' toward Silverlight, its new Adobe Flash competitor," says a Seattle Post-Intelligencer article. The final judgment on the motion extended the settlement two years, to November 2009, but for reasons unrelated to Silverlight.[81]
Version history
- Silverlight 1 – Silverlight 1, developed under the codename Windows Presentation Foundation/Everywhere (WPF/E[82]) was released in 2007. It consisted of the core presentation framework, which is responsible for the user interface (UI), interactivity and user input, basic UI controls, graphics and animation, media playback, Digital rights management (DRM), and DOM integration.
- Silverlight 2 – Included a version of the .NET Framework and implemented the same full Common Language Runtime (CLR) version as .NET Framework 3.0, so it can execute programs written in any .NET language.
- Silverlight 3 – Silverlight 3 was announced on September 12, 2008, and unveiled at MIX09 in Las Vegas on March 18, 2009.[83] A beta version was made available for download the same day. The final version was released July 9, 2009. Silverlight 3 included more controls[84]—including DataGrid, TreeView, various layout panels, DataForm for forms-driven applications and DataPager for viewing paginated data.
- Silverlight 4 – On November 18, 2009, at the Professional Developers Conference in Los Angeles, Microsoft Corporation unveiled a Beta version of Silverlight 4.[85] The final version was released on April 15, 2010 (along with Silverlight 4 tools for developers). New features in Silverlight 4 include: support for Google's Chrome browser, webcam and microphone, printing, more mouse support, new notification support to send messages to users, new and enhanced controls (e.g., RichTextBox, DataGrid), theming of controls, rendering HTML, better localization, etc.
- Silverlight 5 – The final version was made available to download on December 9, 2011.[86] New features included GPU-accelerated video decoding, 3D graphics, playback speed controls, remote control, and 64-bit support.[86]
See also
Notes
References
- "Microsoft Silverlight Release History". Microsoft Corporation. Retrieved January 15, 2019.
- "Frequently Asked Questions § System requirements". Microsoft Silverlight product page. Microsoft Corporation. Retrieved November 4, 2010.
- Perez, Sarah (March 22, 2010). "Silverlight for Symbian Plugin Now Available". Cool Stuff – A Channel 9 Blog. Microsoft Corporation. Retrieved November 4, 2010.
- "Get Silverlight | Microsoft Silverlight > System Requirements". Microsoft Corporation. Retrieved March 1, 2016.
- Smith, Jerry (July 2, 2015). "Moving to HTML5 Premium Media - Microsoft Edge Dev Blog". blogs.windows.com. Retrieved October 1, 2018.
we encourage companies that are using Silverlight for media to begin the transition to DASH/MSE/CENC/EME based designs
- internet explorer – Can I browse Silverlight sites on Windows Phone 7? – Windows Phone Beta – Stack Exchange
- Anderson, Tim (October 27, 2008). "Silverlight 2.0: killer features, no Flash killer". The Register. Retrieved February 4, 2019.
- Schofield, Jack (April 16, 2007). "Microsoft launches Silverlight -- formerly WPF/E -- to compete with Flash". The Guardian. Retrieved February 4, 2019.
- "Rich Internet Application Market Share" (Flash player). StatOwl.com. Retrieved July 24, 2011.
- "Microsoft Silverlight Gets a High Profile Win: 2008 Beijing Olympics". Retrieved February 23, 2010.
- "Microsoft Wins The 2010 Olympics For Silverlight". Retrieved February 23, 2010.
- "Microsoft Working to Make Political Conventions Unconventional". Archived from the original on May 19, 2010. Retrieved February 23, 2010.
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- "Netflix Begins Roll-Out of 2nd Generation Media Player for Instant Streaming on Windows PCs and Intel Macs". Archived from the original on May 29, 2010. Retrieved February 23, 2010.
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- James, Mike (January 9, 2015). "Microsoft Needs To Make Silverlight's Future Clear". i-programmer.info. Retrieved February 5, 2019.
- "End of Silverlight Support". support.microsoft.com. Retrieved December 8, 2019.
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- "Lifecycle FAQ—Internet Explorer". support.microsoft.com. Retrieved October 1, 2018.
Beginning January 12, 2016, only the most current version of Internet Explorer available for a supported operating system receives technical support and security updates
- "The Final Countdown for NPAPI". blog.chromium.org. Retrieved October 1, 2018.
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- "Usage of Silverlight for websites". W3Techs Technology Surveys. Q-Success. Retrieved January 2, 2021.
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- Sterling, Charles. "Writing a Windows Sidebar Gadget in Silverlight dead simple". MSDN Blogs. Retrieved March 9, 2008.
- "Discussed on Microsoft's web site in Q&A with Scott Guthrie".
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- "windows phone software".
- "Using a Downloader Object". Archived from the original on February 22, 2012. Retrieved May 25, 2007.
- "Mono developers to bring Silverlight to Linux". May 7, 2007.
- https://www.zdnet.com/article/xamarin-abandons-its-silverlight-for-linux-technology/
- "Forbidden items — FedoraProject".
- Miguel de Icaza on ASP.NET MVC, Moonlight, and the Android Lawsuit
- Microsoft: Silverlight 5 System Requirements – Compatible Operating systems and browsers
- "FAQ: Silverlight for mobile". Silverlight.net. Archived from the original on March 9, 2008. Retrieved March 9, 2008.
- "Announcing Silverlight for Symbian – RTM – Silverlight for Symbian Team Blog – Site Home – MSDN Blogs". Blogs.msdn.com. July 6, 2010. Archived from the original on March 2, 2013. Retrieved June 15, 2013.
- "NPAPI Plugins in Firefox". blog.mozilla.org. October 8, 2015. Retrieved December 13, 2015.
- "Plug-in support has been dropped other than Flash". Firefox Site Compatibility. October 4, 2016. Retrieved March 8, 2017.
- "NPAPI deprecation: developer guide". sites.google.com. Retrieved December 13, 2015.
- "The Final Countdown for NPAPI". blog.chromium.org. November 24, 2014. Retrieved December 13, 2015.
- "Get Silverlight | Microsoft Silverlight". Microsoft.com. Retrieved June 15, 2013.
- https://www.microsoft.com/getsilverlight/locale/en-us/html/installation-win-SL4.html
- "Silverlight 5 System Requirements". Retrieved March 31, 2018.
- "Remove support for all NPAPI plugins (except Flash)". bugzilla.mozilla.org. Retrieved March 7, 2017.
- "Microsoft: Silverlight 5 System Requirements – Compatible Operating systems and browsers". Microsoft. Retrieved December 24, 2017.
- "Firefox 52.0 Release Notes". March 7, 2017. Retrieved March 7, 2020.
- "Important - Firefox has ended support for Windows XP and Vista". Firefox Help. Retrieved March 7, 2020.
- "Opera Watch: More details on Silverlight support in Opera, 3 May 2007". Archived from the original on July 21, 2011. Retrieved May 2, 2007.CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
- "Silverlight 1.0 Released and Silverlight for Linux Announced". Retrieved September 5, 2007.
- "Microsoft/Novell Collaboration on Silverlight". Retrieved September 5, 2007.
- "Covenant to Downstream Recipients of Moonlight – Microsoft & Novell Interoperability Collaboration". Microsoft. September 28, 2007. Retrieved March 8, 2008.
“Downstream Recipient” means an entity or individual that uses for its intended purpose a Moonlight Implementation obtained directly from Novell or through an Intermediate Recipient… Microsoft reserves the right to update (including discontinue) the foregoing covenant… “Moonlight Implementation” means only those specific portions of Moonlight 1.0 or Moonlight 1.1 that run only as a plug-in to a browser on a Personal Computer and are not licensed under GPLv3 or a Similar License.
- "Microsoft/Novell Collaboration on Silverlight". Miguel de Icaza. September 5, 2007. Retrieved November 9, 2008.
We will be supporting Firefox and Linux initially (that is our first goal) but we are looking forward to work with developers from other operating systems (BSD, Solaris) and other browsers (Konqueror, WebKit and Opera) to ensure that Moonlight works fine on their systems.
- "Moonlight 1.0 for FreeBSD availability announcement". March 5, 2009.
- "Installation and Maintenance of FreeBSD Ports or Packages".
- "Pipelight". Arch Linux Wiki. Retrieved March 31, 2018.
- Chapman, Stephen (December 1, 2009). "Windows Mobile 7: Silverlight Applications, IE Mobile 7, and More!". Archived from the original on February 10, 2010.
- "Nokia to enable Silverlight". Blog.anta.net. March 4, 2008. ISSN 1797-1993. Archived from the original on June 15, 2013. Retrieved March 4, 2008.
- "Windows Phone Silverlight Application Life Cycle". MSDN. Microsoft Corporation. November 19, 2010. Retrieved August 26, 2011.
Version 1.0; Applies To: Windows® Phone 7
- "What's New in Silverlight for Windows Phone". MSDN. Microsoft Corporation. Retrieved August 26, 2011.
Silverlight for Windows Phone OS 7.1 is based on Silverlight 4. That means if you create a new Silverlight for Windows Phone application that targets Windows Phone OS 7.1, you can take advantage of several new features.
- "Microsoft Silverlight Tools for Visual Studio". Retrieved January 22, 2009.
- Parker, Nigel. "MIX07 Your Product is a feature of the Web!". Retrieved June 8, 2007.
- "Eclipse for Silverlight". Retrieved October 14, 2008.
- Montalbano, Elizabeth. "Microsoft Goes Open Source?". Retrieved April 29, 2007.
- Clarke, Gavin. "Silverlight glow dimmed by cross-platform concerns". Retrieved May 5, 2007.
- "Sample Source Code for Silverlight 2 Runtime and SDK Controls".
- Markoff, John (August 11, 2008). "Microsoft leveraging Silverlight and riling critics". International Herald Tribune. Retrieved January 11, 2009.
Others take a darker view of Microsoft's intentions and argue that Silverlight is simply a rehash of the company's 1990s-era "embrace and extend" strategy for pre-empting Web competition. "They're still playing the same games," said Michael Nelson, professor of internet studies at Georgetown University. "It's a way to lock up the content, and it's not enabling as much innovation as we would like to see."
- Meyer, David (April 30, 2008). "Mozilla warns of Flash and Silverlight 'agenda'". ZDNet. Archived from the original on December 27, 2008. Retrieved January 11, 2009.
Companies building websites should beware of proprietary rich-media technologies like Adobe's Flash and Microsoft's Silverlight, the founder of Mozilla Europe has warned.
- "Adobe SWF file format specification" (PDF). Retrieved December 11, 2011.
- "Adobe FLV file format specification" (PDF). Adobe Systems Inc. Archived from the original (PDF) on May 31, 2010. Retrieved December 11, 2011.
- "Microsoft Open Specification Promise". Retrieved December 11, 2011.
- "Microsoft ASF specification". Retrieved December 11, 2011.
- "Mono Moonlight". Mono Project. Retrieved June 22, 2008.
- Miguel de Icaza (May 29, 2012). "Moonlight development discontinued". InfoQ.com. Retrieved June 4, 2012.
- Miguel de Icaza (March 3, 2008). "Pre-Mix 08: Moonlight Updates". Retrieved March 8, 2008.
- Jones, Pamela (May 28, 2008). "Shining Some Light on Microsoft's Moonlight Covenant". Groklaw. Retrieved August 25, 2008.
Moonlight is safe from threat only if you get it from Novell AND DO NOT PASS IT ON, as there are no protections for downstream recipients...Unless those downstream recipients get it from an 'Intermediate Recipient' defined to only include authorized resellers...It's like walking into a store and saying "I'm only going to pay half of the amount I owe and I hereby disclaim my duty to pay full price." You can try that, but the law supersedes whatever intent or desire you've expressed. At minimum, this shows how clearly they DO NOT want to coexist with GPL'd code.
- Chhabra, Gautam (April 20, 2007). "Adobe CEO questions Microsoft Silverlight cross-platform commitment". Java Entrepreneur. Archived from the original on December 20, 2007. Retrieved December 6, 2007.
- Bishop, Todd (October 17, 2007). "Antitrust filing cites Microsoft Silverlight concern". Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Retrieved December 6, 2007.
- "Anitrust motion Executive Summary" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on September 11, 2008. Retrieved September 7, 2008.
- https://www.eightypercent.net/post/old/00273.html
- Fried, Ina. "Microsoft hopes users see the (Silver) light". Retrieved June 18, 2013.
- Heuer, Tim. "A guide to Silverlight 3 new features". Retrieved March 23, 2009.
- "Silverlight 4 Beta What's New". Archived from the original on February 21, 2010. Retrieved January 21, 2010.
- "Silverlight 5 has released! The docs are up and a .chm is available". MSDN blogs. Microsoft Corporation. December 9, 2011. Retrieved December 11, 2011.
External links
- Official website
- Silverlight Developers Center on MSDN
- What's new in Silverlight 5 – step by step in Silverlight 5, many demos and samples available