moonlight

Moonlight 2.0 goes beta

The developer of the Moonlight software that enables Silverlight applications to run on Linux computers said on Monday that he is ready to start publicly beta testing an update to the software.

In a blog posting, Miguel de Icaza said the beta of Moonlight 2.0 is available from the gomono.com Web site.

Moonlight 2.0 is aimed at achieving compatibility with sites written for Silverlight 2.0, but incorporates the media pipeline and a few other features of Silverlight 3.0, de Icaza said. Microsoft released Silverlight 3.0 last month.

The beta is available both as source … Read more

Sexiest convertible tablet PC ever?

The Moonlight laptop isn't just any boring convertible tablet PC. Though the concept model looks a little thick for our taste, the curvy body and dual LCD screens are enough to cause oodles of drool.

Both displays are touch screen, with the smaller LCD serving as a mouse. The secondary panel can even be used to run a separate operating system or as an extension to the main one. In recognition that a curved body is hardly a stable surface, a pair of flip legs prop up the machine for a more ergonomic position.

This concept was designed by Modo forum member minibraun, a student in Croatia, for a "Laptop of the future" contest (which minibraun didn't win). Nonetheless, it's a sexy machine that at least deserves the light of day, even if it never hits retail shelves. More pictures after the jump. … Read more

The problems with Microsoft's Moonlight solution

Novell's Mono team continues to improve its "Microsoft Silverlight on Linux" story, now with the release of Moonlight 1.0, an open-source implementation of Microsoft's Silverlight rich media technology for the Web, as CNET reports. It's a major upgrade to Moonlight and brings it closer to parity with Microsoft's Silverlight. Novell's Miguel de Icaza, the developer behind Mono and Moonlight, relied heavily on working in partnership with Microsoft to deliver the upgrade.

Therein lies both the promise and the peril of Moonlight. Well, one of them. For one thing, due to Microsoft-imposed restrictions, … Read more

'Moonlight' heads to beta

Microsoft and Novell said Tuesday that they are nearly ready with a beta version of Moonlight--a Firefox add-on that allows Silverlight content to play on Linux PCs.

The software is being announced as the companies tout the second anniversary of their peace deal.

Work on Moonlight began in May 2007 and an alpha version was shown a month later. Novell's Miguel De Icaza, who is heading the Moonlight effort, said on his blog last week that the beta version should be out within days.

The move helps Microsoft in its effort to position Silverlight as a rival to … Read more

GoDaddy blocked in China

GoDaddy, the world's leading domain name registrar, is inaccessible in China, writes Moonlight Blog. Possible reasons? Efforts to prevent people from registering Olympic winners' names, or the hope that Chinese users will register domains in China.

If the goal is to make it less convenient (though by no means impossible) for Chinese to register non-Chinese domain names, this may represent an effort to keep Chinese-published material under home control.

Moonlinght tells us more about the Olympic angle:

The current blocking may be related to the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. China's sport authority has banned the issuing of Internet … Read more

Random Sampler: Silicon Valley #1?, Microsoft wants open source to get paid more, etc.

I'm closing up my quarter today (Not sure who said open source is easy, but.... :-), but wanted to highlight a few of the more interesting stories I read today.

Despite my vain imaginings to the contrary, it turns out that Silicon Valley really is the center of the universe. Who knew? Well, except for you Silicon Valley smugsters? Actually, the real news in CNET's article is how much R&D is moving away from the Valley. Red Hat is revealed as the driving force behind The Simpsons, whose writer and co-producer (Joel Cohen) credits Red Hat Enterprise Linux by suggesting that "the volume and speed of material that was created for the movie could never have been done without that Red Hat-fueled system. Cohen also shows a true understanding of innovation by declaring his own inspiration comes from "shamelessly ripping off other people's ideas." TechCrunch's Erick Schonfeld takes a fascinating look at the growth of YouTube relative to Google, but questions its seeming inability to turn popularity into cash: "Either YouTube is unable to make money from a large portion of its user-generated video inventory....Or YouTube just hasn't turned on the money-gushing hose yet." (Sounds like an open-source quandary, no?)… Read more

Today's must reads: Novell's lead pony, Microsoft on open source, and more

It's my end of quarter, and I can't blog at the volume that you deserve. Only seven posts today....I have failed you! :-)

There were a string of posts, however, that deserve to be noted, even if I lack the time to comment on them in detail. Here they are:

Dana Blankenhorn has one of his best posts yet, this time comparing Novell to a "lead pony" in horse racing. I'm glad to see Novell doing well with some areas of its business, but I agree with Dana that I'd rather see Novell doing this as a real contender, rather than as Microsoft's sidekick (On Novell's Moonlight, Dana writes "...to say [Moonlight] is open source is like calling a lead pony a thoroughbred"). Gordon Haff calls out the "natural" dynamics of markets that limit monopolies beyond a generation or two. In Microsoft's case, "shifting an entire product foundation is enormously challenging and past skill sets and ecosystem don't necessarily travel well from one generation to another." Bingo.… Read more

Mono project takes Silverlight step closer to Adobe AIR

Miguel de Icaza, who heads up the open-source Mono project, has provided an update on a project to create Silverlight applications that run out of the browser, moving a small step toward what Adobe Systems offers with AIR.

Mono is an open-source implementation of Microsoft's .Net framework. It lets developers use Microsoft tools and languages, like C#, to write applications that run on Windows, Linux, or MacOS.

Part of the Mono project is Moonlight, an implementation of Silverlight that runs on Linux. Silverlight is a browser plug-in for rich Internet applications.

De Icaza said that some of the Moonlight … Read more

Colored orbs of light and sound

From the bathtub to the bed, it's usually not hard to make sport of pointless mood-lighting products. Much to our surprise, however, we've encountered one that we might actually like.

Moonlight's "360-Degree Sound System" does more than just add a Barry White atmosphere; it also has speakers that can handle up to 200 watts of amplification in all directions, according to Technabob. If you combine these with Grundig's "Audiorama" speakers, you'll have sound in every molecule of your abode. As if that weren't enough, the audio orbs can also be … Read more