____/ Linonut on Tuesday 18 December 2007 12:46 : \____
> * cc fired off this tart reply:
>
>> Well if a happy-go-lucky consumer just happens to pick a popular
>> distro that includes Mono, is that the end of the world? A first timer
>> using Linux would be the important point to stress. Let's face it, an
>> outspoken minority who has contributed very little to the community is
>> now concerned about something that people who have been involved with
>> open source for years could care less about. That includes Mark
>> Shuttleworth who has pledged freedom. So I fail to see how a small
>> subset of distros installing Mono by default to allow interoperability
>> is going to be the end of Linux. Or the start of the end. Or even a
>> bad thing in the first place.
>
> Depends what else comes with package, doesn't it?
>
> Rest assured many entities are diligently pursuing avenues of revenue
> extraction for GNU/Linux.
http://www.roughlydrafted.com/RD/RDM.Tech.Q2.07/878F362F-2BF5-4C86-84E7-9C976F7BDDD4.htmlhttp://www.roughlydrafted.com/RD/RDM.Tech.Q2.07/878F362F-2BF5-4C86-84E7-9C976F7BDDD4.html
--quote--
FOSS Reevaluates Microsoft with .Net and Mono.
As the stalwart champion of closed, proprietary software, Microsoft has
long accumulated a reputation as a planet inhospitable to any form of FOSS
life forms. However, recent rumblings of change have suggested that a new
world of interoperability is afoot, and that Microsoft may actually take the
lead in launching new open standards.
One example is .Net, a general marketing name that includes new development
frameworks that aspire to replace Windows’ former Win32 platform with a modern
new platform formerly referred to as Longhorn’s WinFX, and now called Windows
Vista and the .Net Framework 3.0.
Conceptually, this new framework has a lot in common with Apple’s Cocoa
frameworks in Mac OS X. The main difference is that while Apple has made no
effort to offer an open specification for third party implementations of Cocoa
(the way NeXT earlier opened up its predecessor under the name OpenStep),
Microsoft has submitted portions of .Net technologies to the ECMA standards
body.
Back in 2000, Microsoft’s release of .Net’s C# language and its Common
Language Infrastructure captured the attention of Miguel de Icaza, a FOSS
developer behind the Linux GNOME environment.
De Icaza started Mono, an open source project to implement Microsoft’s .Net
development platform for Linux. His company, Ximian, also worked to create an
open source alternative to Microsoft’s Exchange Server, called Ximian
Evolution.
Ximian was bought up by Novell, which continues to support the development
of Mono for a variety of platforms, including Apple’s Mac OS X. Last fall,
Microsoft entered into an agreement with Novell to not sue each others’
customers for patent infringement. This includes Novell customers using Mono.
Does this mean that Microsoft is now aligned with open source developers
and working to push open, interoperable implementations of its software? Is
the old triangle of contention between Microsoft, Linux and Apple dissolving
into a free and open love circle?
[Mono - Wikipedia]
Ha Ha, No.
Microsoft is not trying to usher in a new OpenStep with .Net. It is working
to usher in a new Win32: another decade of dependance upon Microsoft software
that can only work on Windows. Why the subterfuge on submitting portions
of .Net to standards bodies? Three guesses, and the first two don’t count!
The best way to keep opponents busy is to give them false directions that
lead into traps. This will distract them from blazing their own successful,
competing trail, and will lead them directly into containment with the least
mess and inconvenience.
Microsoft is leading Mono users and developers into a pleasant feeling
trap. Along the way, they gain appreciation for Microsoft’s development tools
as they struggle to make their own open source copies. They will grow
increasingly familiar with Microsoft’s directions, up to the point where they
are hopelessly brainwashed into thinking that Microsoft is leading technology
into a paradise of openness.
Then Microsoft will spring out its patent gun and offer a tight ultimatum:
join or die. The only options for Mono developers will be to get bought out by
Microsoft and join the collective, or to suddenly face the fact that Microsoft
will always be two steps ahead in knowing where .Net is headed, and will have
a laundry list of patents–obvious or not–lined up waiting for anyone who
attempts to use its own technology to compete with it.
We already know that Mono development exists at the whim of Microsoft, and
that dangerous looking stalactites of patent threats point down from above.
Mono developers insist that Microsoft is a changed company and would never let
anything bad happen to developers working to extend the features of its .Net.
Microsoft’s own icy embrace of Mono developers is to offer a license that
allows them to do anything but offer commercial software. Mono is nothing more
than a training camp on how to serve Microsoft that leads to a do or die
diploma ceremony at the end.
You thought Microsoft was serving the open source community? Why?
--/quote--
--
~~ Best of wishes
Roy S. Schestowitz | while (!0==1) echo 'Bill Gates' > /dev/null
http://Schestowitz.com | GNU is Not UNIX | PGP-Key: 0x74572E8E
http://iuron.com - proposing a non-profit search engine
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