The project OpenSilver 2.2 has been published, continuing the development of the Silverlight platform. With OpenSilver, interactive web applications can be created using C#, F#, XAML, and .Net. Applications compiled with OpenSilver can run on desktop and mobile browsers with WebAssembly support, though compilation is currently only possible on Windows using the Visual Studio environment. The project’s code is written in C# and is available under the MIT license.
In 2021, Microsoft ceased development and support for the Silverlight platform in favor of standard Web technologies. The Opensilver project was initially created to provide tools for extending the life of existing Silverlight applications following Microsoft’s decision. Opensilver supports all key functionalities of the Silverlight engine, including full support for C# and XAML languages, as well as most platform APIs necessary for using C# libraries like Telerik UI, WCF Ria Services, Prism, and Mef.
Opensilver has evolved beyond its original purpose of extending Silverlight’s lifespan and now serves as an independent platform for creating new applications. The project is developing a new development environment (an extension to Visual Studio), supporting the latest versions of C# and the .NET platform, and ensuring compatibility with JavaScript libraries.
Open projects like Mono (Mono-wasm) and Microsoft Blazor (part of ASP.NET Core) have paved the way for running applications in the browser through compilation into WebAssembly intermediate code. Opensilver is also working on the CSHTML5 project, which enables the compilation of C#/XAML/.NET applications into a JavaScript representation suitable for browser launch, expanding its codebase to include the ability to run C#/XAML/.NET in WebAssembly, rather than just JavaScript.