Microsoft, Intel Team to Put Silverlight on Moblin Linux

As Microsoft continues its effort to place its Silverlight rich Internet application technology on a variety of different platforms, the software giant has teamed with Intel to announce that Silverlight will run on Intel Atom-based systems, particularly on the open-source Moblin operating system.

Intel officials said Moblin will support Silverlight 3 early next year. Moblin is an open-source operating system project for netbooks, handhelds, smartphones and in-car computers. Using Silverlight's cross-platform foundation, developers will be able to write applications once and have them run on Windows and Moblin devices, expanding the reach of Silverlight applications to more devices and consumers, and thus demonstrating the continued push into PC, TV and phone, Intel said.

The news of Silverlight running on Moblin came at the Intel Developer Forum on Sept. 23. During a keynote address at the event, Renee James, Intel’s corporate vice president and general manager of the company's Software and Services Group, and Ian Ellison-Taylor, Microsoft's general manager for Client Platforms and Tools, announced the collaboration. The duo also demonstrated IIS Smooth Streaming on Atom-based devices running both Windows 7 and Moblin,

Silverlight will be one of the technologies supported in Intel’s recently announced Atom Developer Program.

An entry on the Microsoft Silverlight team blog said:

"We are excited by further support of Silverlight by key industry leaders and how this collaboration delivers on Silverlight’s cross-platform, cross-browser, and cross-device promise by going beyond just the PC to allow developers to reach more endpoints for their applications and services. We see this as a clear extension of our current efforts with Novell where we are building an open-source implementation of Silverlight called 'Moonlight' that is targeted at the broad range of Linux–based PCs."

On Sept. 22, Microsoft announced Silverlight support on its Windows Embedded CE operating system. Brian Goldfarb, lead product manager of the Web Platform and Tools team at Microsoft, said the embedded story and the Intel Atom and Moblin support signal Microsoft's intent to see Silverlight on "more platforms. We're enabling developers and maintaining a consistent story as we deliver Silverlight to more and more platforms."

Meanwhile, demonstrating industry momentum for netbooks and the Moblin operating system, James also announced the Dell Inspiron Mini 10v with Ubuntu Moblin Remix Developer Edition preinstalled will be available starting Sept. 24. James also announced that ASUS and Acer have launched—and Samsung is planning to launch—Moblin Version 2-based netbook devices. In addition, multiple operating system vendors, including Canonical, CS2C, Linpus, Mandriva, Novell, Phoenix and Turbolinux, announced that production-ready Moblin Version 2-based operating systems are now available, she said.