If you are a fan of myOSity, you probably know that it runs on top of Microsoft’s excellent Silverlight platform.  We’ve been with Silverlight since version 2.0 and remain committed to it for many reasons which I won’t get into here (plenty of blogs out there with “Silverlight vs. Flash” posts…).

Silverlight 4 (beta 1) brings a host of new enhancements that will, in turn, allows us to add some really cool features to myOSity in the near future.  Check out this list:

• myOSity on your desktop!  Technically we could give this to you now with SL3, but there isn’t really a compelling reason to do so.  With SL4, we’ll be able to add a whole host of new capabilities that we can’t offer in the browser…
• Printing.  SL4 now supports the ability for printing, an oft requested feature from the Silverlight developer community.  Thanks to Microsoft for listening!
• Html support.  We’ll be able to give you a mini web browser/RSS experience in myOSity without hacks and workarounds.
• Local file system access.  You’ll be able to drag and drop your local files right into myOSity, and access them from any other computer if you upload them to your myOSity file system.
• Cross-domain support.  This is a technical term that means we’ll be able to write better mash-up applications, like Twitter clients, Facebook integration, etc.
• Webcam/microphone support.  Voice & Video-chat anyone?  Don’t expect this feature right away, but eventually we’ll be able to let you chat with your friends with voice and video through myOSity.

And much more!  Too many to list really, but you get the idea… good things are coming!  I should also mention that, at this time, Microsoft hasn’t licensed SL4 for public use yet, but rest assured, we’ll be moving quickly to take advantage of the new version as soon as it becomes publicly available.

If you want all the nitty gritty details, you can click here to check out the official announcement regarding SL4 Beta.

Xamla has recently been accepted into the silverlight.net Community Gallery.  You can check it out here: http://www.silverlight.net/community/samples/silverlight-samples/xamla/

Henry (from the myOSity project team) has recently introduced “localization” support for myOSity, which basically means support for displaying multiple languages.  In fact, he has already started creating the translation file for Chinese.

Below is a screenshot of the myOSity welcome dialog with Chinese localization.

I've adapted the Microsoft Silverlight demo of chess, the original verison of which can be found over at silverlight.net in the community gallery, to work as a myOSity application.  It ain't pretty (yet) but it works.  Check it out and make a post in the discussion thread of Garbo Chess (see this post for details the new Discussion System) to request features and provide feedback.

In this third installment, I demonstrate how you can use the myOSity Discussion Framework to have your say regarding just about anything (people, applications, files, and more).

Link to video (WMV format)

I am pleased to announce that myOSity was recently accepted into the Microsoft BizSpark program.  For those of you who don't know what BizSpark is all about:  It's a program specifically designed for small-business startups and provides software, support, and exposure - all courtesy of Microsoft.  A good program that myOSity is proud to be a part of.

In the second installment of this video series, I demonstrate the myOSity Interop framework, which allows applications to communicate with each other and pass information.

Link to wmv file

The little solitaire application I wrote a while back has been accepted into the Silverlight.net Community Gallery  Check it out!

Over the next several days, myOSity will be relocating to a new server and hosting provider.  The current host has been good to us during early development, but it's time for myOSity to find a home where scalability is not going to be an issue down the road.  So over the next week, expect a few random disruptions to both myOSity and this blog.

This is actually really exciting news, because it means that myOSity is getting closer to v1.0!

I put together a little screen cast (my first ever) which highlights the main features of myOSity.   Subsequent videos will dive into different aspects of myOSity in more detail.

Link to WMV file