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Disinformation Disinfected, Pt. 2: The False Dilemma
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| One of the common defenses – a “talking point”, if you will – of mono /
| moonlight apologists goes something like this:
|
| “Software patents are bad, but are not a problem unique to mono. If you worry
| about patents in mono, you have to worry about patents in general. And, if
| you do that, you might as well not even develop software at all. So, don’t
| worry about mono.”
|
| Variations on this theme abound, here’s just one recent example from the
| Ubuntu Forums:
|
| using mono is the same as using the linux kernel. there is always a risk
| for patent infringement since it’s the whole patent system is so broken
| in america.
|
| This defense of mono has been around for a while, Miguel de Icaza uses it
| back in 2004, with what I guess he thinks is an especially subtle
| misrepresentation of the concern:
|
| Not using Mono in any shape or form is not a blank waiver against
| patents.
|
| [...]
|
| Microsoft suing TomTom has made this a bit of a tricky argument for mono
| apologists – it was once popular to point out how Microsoft only used their
| patent portfolio defensively – but it still comes up enough to be worth
| addressing.
|
| I don’t want to go too far afield – I’m trying to stick to one small point
| per post and this is already too long – but there is a subtler bit of
| misinformation here: the implication that if there were no patent issues at
| all, everyone would be welcoming mono with open arms. I guess they think mono
| is just that fucking awesome. However, there are countless projects that
| fail to achieve mainstream acceptance for a host of reasons.
|
| I’ll try to deal with some of those reasons later – thanks for reading!
`----
http://meandubuntu.wordpress.com/2009/06/01/disinformation-disinfected-pt-2-the-false-dilemma/
MS v Linux: Sparks of the Tom Tom Fire stubbornly refuse to die
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| In course of the last decade, every once in a while Microsoft has been known
| to have accused Linux of infringing one of its patents or another. Despite
| the said multiple claims for years that elements of the open-source operating
| system violate its patents, Microsoft had restricted itself till 2009 to
| supporting legal action against Linux (for instance, the infamous alleged
| funneling of money by Microsoft to SCO so as to fuel the latter’s lawsuits
| against IBM and other Linux-user companies). Simultaneously with such
| actions, Microsoft has not restricted either its alliances with the said
| companies, including its partnerships with Novell and Red Hat.
|
| [...]
|
| However, the settlement is far from successful in calming down the
| much-agitated open-source legal community, with the legal issues involved
| being still undecided. In effect, this settlement ends one phase of the
| community's response to Microsoft patent aggression and begins another.It may
| be interesting to note that a continuing litigation will have subjected
| Microsoft’s patent claims to a rigorous ‘prior art’ search to which the
| company may have been unwilling.
`----
http://spicyipindia.blogspot.com/2009/06/ms-v-linux-sparks-of-tom-tom-fire.html
Recent:
Striking the Right Gnote
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| Not that Figuiere is a Mono advocate. But his opposition over the years has
| been more practical than philosophical. For instance, in several discussion
| threads about Including Mono in GNOME on the desktop-devel-list in July 2006,
| Figuiere objected to shipping Mono-based apps on the grounds that the
| language required a lot of disk space, but was supporting only minor
| applications -- and he made the same objection to Python, a far less
| contentious programming language.
|
| This objection, incidentally, is one that he continues to hold today. Gnote,
| he tells me, "has all to do with the burden of carrying runtime systems
| designed to make the programmer's life easier (but not the users'). Had
| Tomboy been written in Python, it would have gotten the same treatment."
|
| Of course, Figuiere might have soured on Mono after being laid off at Novell
| in February. But, if he did, it would be strange if he continued to use what
| he describes as an "openSUSE 11.1 custom build with SUSE Studio with some
| custom packages" -- free software versions of Novell's own products.
`----
http://itmanagement.earthweb.com/osrc/article.php/3822091/Striking-the-Right-Gnote.htm
Getting to know Gnote
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| What is a big deal is that Gnote does what I need it to do. The controvery
| surrounding it be hanged (and you can use your favourite search engine to
| learn about the controversy). I like Gnote. It’s useful. And until something
| better comes along, it’s going to be my note application of choice
`----
http://scottnesbitt.net/ubuntublog/?p=444
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