Microsoft and Novell Partners on Silverlight Conduit Called Moonlight

Touting the second anniversary of their contentious partnership, Microsoft and Novell on Tuesday announced that they are all set to launch the beta version of Moonlight, a Firefox supported service that lets Silverlight content to run on Linux PCs. 

Kicked off in May 2007, the alpha version of Moonlight initially appeared almost a month back, and a blog post from Miguel De Icaza, who is leading the Moonlight effort, asserted that the product will be ready for its beta launch within days. 

The move will help Microsoft’s Silverlight to take on Adobe’s Flash that already supports Linux systems, and is installed on a large number of PCs. 

The duo said that Moonlight will be offered as an open-source plug in application for the Firefox web browser, and its beta version will be available free for download. 

Earlier, Microsoft’s deal with NBC that used Silverlight technology to power videos on NBCOlympics.com had already provided great exposure to the technology. 

In addition, Novell also announced an Advanced Management Pack that connects to Microsoft’s System Centre, and will allow IT managers to monitor deployments of both Windows and SUSE Linux. 

Commenting on the partnership between the two companies, Novell’s general manager for global strategic alliances, Susan Heystee said that the duo jointly holds around 200 customers, as against 70 customers during the end of the first year of partnership.