Fresh Moonlight
Moonlight is the name of Novell's Linux implementation of Microsoft's Silverlight 1.0 technology. Moonlight is now available in a Beta version for 32 and 64 Bit Linux systems, albeit only for Firefox users.
With Silverlight, Microsoft aims to compete with the widely used Flash from Adobe, at present with little success. But if few web pages are as yet using Silverlight, Moonlight has one distinct advantage over Flash: the simple plugin installation via the customary Firefox add-on, whereas the Flash installation is still somewhat laborious.
The Beta brings improvements in performance, fixes memory leaks and also supports the "Microsoft Media Pack" which contains the Microsoft Media Codec from Windows, that meanwhile, is also available for Linux. The Moonlight plug-in loads the codecs automatically when a page calls for it. In addition, Moonlight supports adaptive streaming. This means that the server regulates the compression of video data regardless of the connection flow-rate. If the bandwidth shrinks, the server sends the video at a lower Bit rate.
Whereby Moonlight 1.0 is based on the Silverlight 1.0, it comes with a 2.0 Media Stack, although the DRM parts are missing. This enables Moonlight to support all media codes from Silverlight 2.0, but doesn't mean that the browser can handle all of Silverlight's applications. Moonlight recognizes the video codecs WMV1 to WMV3, WMVA and WVMC1 and the audio codecs WMA7 to WMA10 and MP3. In the meantime, Microsoft are automatically redirecting Linux users who want to watch videos or films on Silverlight to the Moonlight page, but the Firefox plug-in can also be downloaded from the website. Further browsers (Opera, Konqueror), along with various systems (OpenSolaris, BSD) are to be supported in future. A list of pages that Moonlight more or less supports is available here.
Issue 268/2023
Buy this issue as a PDF
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Find SysAdmin Jobs
News
-
KDE Plasma 5.27 Beta is Ready for Testing
The latest beta iteration of the KDE Plasma desktop is now available and includes some important additions and fixes.
-
Netrunner OS 23 Is Now Available
The latest version of this Linux distribution is now based on Debian Bullseye and is ready for installation and finally hits the KDE 5.20 branch of the desktop.
-
New Linux Distribution Built for Gamers
With a Gnome desktop that offers different layouts and a custom kernel, PikaOS is a great option for gamers of all types.
-
System76 Beefs Up Popular Pangolin Laptop
The darling of open-source-powered laptops and desktops will soon drop a new AMD Ryzen 7-powered version of their popular Pangolin laptop.
-
Nobara Project Is a Modified Version of Fedora with User-Friendly Fixes
If you're looking for a version of Fedora that includes third-party and proprietary packages, look no further than the Nobara Project.
-
Gnome 44 Now Has a Release Date
Gnome 44 will be officially released on March 22, 2023.
-
Nitrux 2.6 Available with Kernel 6.1 and a Major Change
The developers of Nitrux have officially released version 2.6 of their Linux distribution with plenty of new features to excite users.
-
Vanilla OS Initial Release Is Now Available
A stock GNOME experience with on-demand immutability finally sees its first production release.
-
Critical Linux Vulnerability Found to Impact SMB Servers
A Linux vulnerability with a CVSS score of 10 has been found to affect SMB servers and can lead to remote code execution.
-
Linux Mint 21.1 Now Available with Plenty of Look and Feel Changes
Vera has arrived and although it is still using kernel 5.15, there are plenty of improvements sure to please everyone.