14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft's Silverlight might get native support on the next Ubuntu 14.04 LTS version if the developers go through with the integration of a few upstream patches.
It's unclear if Microsoft still has the same determination to promote Silverlight, but some people are using it and some of them have Ubuntu systems.
This very issue is being discussed on the mailing lists, but it seems that Pipelight, the application that is required for native support, has some Wine dependencies, which can be a problem.
“I've used Pipelight for some time now, and I've found it to be one of the most valuable new packages I've come across this year. It enables the use of the Silverlight plugin in native Ubuntu browsers. In my opinion, if this plugin could be made easily available in 14.04LTS without adding a PPA and so forth, I think this could be considered a killer-feature in 14.04LTS,” said Jo-Erlend Schinstad.
It's not impossible to integrate Pipelight by default in Ubuntu, but as it stands right now, it's unlike that Canonical will devote manpower to make it work. When the Pipelight developers integrate the Wine patches, maybe Ubuntu will find a place for it.