Microsoft has revealed it is integrating the .Net framework into its new Silverlight cross-browser technology for running multimedia applications on the Web. Chief Software Architect and CTO Ray Ozzie made the announcement in a keynote speech to kick off the MIX07 conference in Las Vegas. He said Microsoft is shipping a cross-platform version of the .Net framework for the browser in Silverlight, which went into its first beta Monday. Silverlight, unveiled a few weeks ago, is essentially a Web-based version of Microsoft"s Windows Presentation Foundation, the user-interface framework in Windows Vista.
Microsoft is encouraging developers to build applications for it through both the Microsoft Expression toolset and Microsoft Visual Studio IDE. The company even updated the currently available alpha of the next version of Visual Studio, code-named Orcas, by releasing Silverlight Tools for Visual Studio Orcas. Leveraging .Net developer community to build application for Silverlight is a clever strategic move for the company so it can gain ground its lost to Adobe and others by its long-time reluctance to accept the Web as a development platform. Ozzie also unveiled Microsoft Silverlight Streaming by Windows Live, a hosting and repository service that lets Web designers and developers stream cross-browser rich Internet applications on both Windows and the Mac OS. The company also said it opened up APIs to Windows Live services through new licensing terms so they can be integrated into the Silverlight Streaming service and delivered on Silverlight applications.