Google for "silverlight moblin", plans for this existed also previously.

Regarding proprietary technology, I bet it's every bit as open as the official flash plugin.

Personally I hate Flash because it's closed source, very resource hungry and as a result can exclude people from enjoying content.

But a simple fact is many people in this forum want it and Nokia/Adobe are unwilling to provide it.

Silverlight is obviously a competitor to Flash but at least an open version of it exists - moonlight, and generally works quite well.

The source code for moonlight is available and anyone can port it also the video codecs are available (binary only and seperate licence) it's not perfect but a much better solution than Flash.

It's bad enough there are closed-source drivers in MeeGo.

Can anyone tech-knowledgeable can tell me what/how Silverlight works and how it compares to Flash and Qt?

So far I've got mixed ideas of it.

WTF is silverlight? flash must be better if its used more, right?

Silverlight is better if it is used less. Flash solved a problem that is now much less of a problem, so it is better if it is used less too.

\MS bringing silverlight in to "compete" with flash was a stroke of misguided stupidity. It just makes matters worse.

Don't install it, don't use it, and it will go away. Take the time to email sites using and let them know they have made a bit of an error.

Open versions of Flash exist also, but suffer from the same problem as Moonlight--they are several versions behind the commercially developed products and are not feature compatible. The legality of the codecs in Moonlight is questionable since they contain Microsoft technology among others, and while this is covered by the Novell-Microsoft patent agreement, indemnifying Suse, it's my understanding that other Linux distributions cannot ship the codec pack.

As frustrating as Adobe Flash has always been, and as I type this on 64-bit Linux still clinging to the last 64-bit beta Flash library, I think we'd be in a much more precarious situation if the respective marketshares of Flash and Silverlight were reversed. I'm just not certain that Silverlight/Moonlight is the answer, regardless of the technical merits of the platform.

There are no closed source drivers in MeeGo, there are closed source drivers in device-specific builds of MeeGo which are added by the device vendor. There are four such binary blobs in the N900 image, only two of which are drivers (and both userspace.)

The problem with Silverlight is that you either get stuck with the closed Microsoft version or you are using the perpetually behind Moonlight. Ditto with Flash and Gnash. On top of that, you get to deal with Microsoft's saber rattling regarding software patents that are always vague.

Trusting Microsoft has been the downfall of many companies. It'll take a lot of effort on their behalf (that they have yet to show) before people, especially the open source community, will trust them.

see this thread at meego.com forum: http://forum.meego.com/showthread.php?t=1034