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LCA 2010: Allison warns of patent traps in Mono
,----[ Quote ]
| Patents are the only threat that Microsoft
| can brandish against free and open source
| software and that is exactly why people
| should be wary of the Mono project, free
| software advocate and Samba hacker Jeremy
| Allison told a packed auditorium at the
| 11th LCA today.
|
| Allison's presentation, titled "Microsoft
| and free software: the elephant in the
| room" was held in the second largest
| auditorium but it was difficult to find
| standing room once he got going.
|
| Sporting a T-shirt with the Samba logo on
| the front, and "opening windows to a wider
| world" on the rear, Allison presented a
| meticulously prepared set of arguments to
| show that patents were the only way which
| the word's largest software company had
| left to attack FOSS.
|
| Mono is an attempt to create an open source
| clone of Microsoft's .NET development
| environment; the project was begun by
| Novell vice-president Miguel de Icaza who
| claims this will pull Windows developers
| over to GNU/Linux.
|
| Allison said the patent war would be a
| never-ending conflict. "All the patent
| promises about Mono count for nothing," he
| said. Other methods of harming FOSS had not
| borne the expected fruit.
`----
http://www.figuiere.net/hub/blog/?2010/01/20/694-public-service-announcement
Microsoft to declare patent war on iPhone/Android?
,----[ Quote ]
| A key Linux developer has predicted
| Microsoft will use its huge patent
| portfolio to cripple smartphone competitors
| and boost its woeful Windows Mobile market
| share.
|
| Microsoft will increasingly utilise its
| patent library to try and stifle any
| competition for netbook OSes and reassert
| itself in the mobile phone space, a
| prominent open source developer has argued.
|
| [...]
|
| That strategy is likely to be particularly
| prominent in the market for non-PC devices
| such as netbooks and smart phones, where
| Windows doesn't enjoy the same strength of
| market share. While co-marketing schemes
| have seen former Linux supporters such as
| Asus largely shift to Windows, maintaining
| overall share and eliminating new
| competitors is critical to Microsoft's
| survival, Allison said.
`----
http://apcmag.com/microsoft-to-declare-war-on-netbooks-and-smart-phones.htm
Microsoft, Native Code, and Security
,----[ Quote ]
| Connecting the dots, however, I'm tempted
| to push this a little forward. Contrary to
| what Microsoft envisioned or hoped or
| simply told us, the Windows ecosystem is
| not moving towards a .NET centric solution,
| but .NET is only a powerful and
| sophisticated execution and development
| environment on top of Windows .
`----
http://blog.marcocantu.com/blog/microsoft_nativecode_security.html
Recent:
Mono and Samba: smell the difference, says Allison
,----[ Quote ]
| It may be recalled that Allison quit Novell in disgust
| soon after the company signed a patent indemnification
| deal with Microsoft in November 2006.
|
| [...]
|
| "Miguel's employer, Novell, has a patent agreement
| with Microsoft that exempts Mono users from Microsoft
| patent aggression, so long as you get Mono from
| Novell. Miguel takes pains to point this out," Allison
| wrote.
|
| As far as Mono goes, De Icaza has implemented parts of
| it which are not covered by the specifications
| submitted to the standards body ECMA by Microsoft; the
| parts submitted are said to be available on royalty-
| free terms and without fear of patent violations.
`----
http://www.itwire.com/content/view/28570/1090/
Consequences (If You Wait Long Enough)
,----[ Quote ]
| Monomania
| Jeremy Allison argues that Mono is dangerous
| to free software distributions and should be
| relegated to the "restricted" repositories
| along with other software with unsafe
| licensing and/or patent contexts. He makes
| rational arguments, avoids emotion and thus
| when he is inevitably dismissed with a hand-
| wave by the Monomaniacs like the rest of us it
| will be especially telling.
`----
http://blogs.sun.com/webmink/entry/links_for_2009_10_16
Mono a mano - Many of us are wrestling with this, I suspect
,----[ Quote ]
| Allison's contention is that while he can
| understand original Mono creator Miguel de
| Icaza's reasons for wanting to code GUI apps
| in C# rather than C or C++, Allison would
| rather that the open-source community turned
| to Java instead in its quest to build out the
| graphical environment. There is some talk
| about, at the time Mono was started, Java not
| being available under a free license, but
| Allison contends that it has more to do with
| potential or real rivalries among developers
| wishing to use Java or Mono/C++, as well as
| control over their respective projects.
|
| [...]
|
| On the other hand, seeing Mono as the "Miguel
| de Icaza-who-works-for-Novell Show," keeping
| in mind that I know little about him and have
| never met him, doesn't give me a good feeling
| about how GNOME is tipping every more closely
| into becoming a Mono-powered world.
`----
http://www.insidesocal.com/click/2009/10/mono-a-mano---many-of-us-are-w.html
Monomania
,----[ Quote ]
| But the problem is that Mono is dangerous for
| Free Software. The heart of the matter is, as
| usual, software patents. Microsoft have patents
| on the technology inside .NET, and since the
| Tom Tom lawsuit, Microsoft have shown they are
| not averse to attacking Free Software using
| patent infringement claims. Microsoft have
| tried to allay some fears by putting the .NET
| specification under their "Microsoft Community
| Promise" which you can read here:
|
| http://www.microsoft.com/interop/cp/default.mspx
|
| Miguel hailed this a the solution to all the
| patent problems with Mono. But this promise is
| simply not good enough to base a language
| environment implementation upon. After all, if
| the rug is pulled out from under that
| implementation by the threat of patent
| infringement you don't just lose the
| implementation itself, you lose all the
| programs that depend upon it. That's a really
| dangerous situation for Free Software programs
| to be in. The Free Software Foundation wrote a
| good analysis of the problems with this promise
| here:
|
| http://www.fsf.org/news/2009-07-mscp-mono
|
| But my basic issue with the Microsoft Community
| Promise is that Miguel doesn't have to depend
| on it like everyone else does. Miguel's
| employer, Novell, has a patent agreement with
| Microsoft that exempts Mono users from
| Microsoft patent aggression, so long as you get
| Mono from Novell.
|
| [...]
|
| Microsoft isn't playing games any more by
| merely threatening to assert patents. Real
| lawsuits have now occurred and the gloves are
| off against Free Software. Moving Mono and its
| applications to the "restricted" repositories
| is now just plain common sense.
`----
http://tuxdeluxe.org/node/299
Mono is a trap â evidence
,----[ Quote ]
| Still arenât convinced that Mono is a trap
| which ultimately only benefits Microsoft?
|
| Take a look at this âHighly Confidentialâ
| document from Microsoft (from Comes vs
| Microsoft case) entitled âEffective Evangelismâ
| and decide for yourself. It exposes Microsoftâs
| game plan for dominating the market with their
| platforms (which we already know, but some
| choose to ignore).
`----
http://blog.christophersmart.com/2009/10/15/mono-is-a-trap-evidence/
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