Mono and Linux
There has been recently some fuss around Mono being included into the repositories by Debian and Linux, most notably coming from Stallman / FSF. While Stallman always seem to have something going on to rant about, this one may be a little different. Most notably because Mono lets you run some Microsoft languages in a Linux OS. And as we all know, usually Microsoft + Linux isn’t a happy theme. Same goes with Ubuntu.
However it’s not such a new thing for Mono being installed in a couple distros, as Tomboy comes with a few distros with Gnome, which depends on Mono, as it’s coded in C#. Fedora for example stated that for Fedora Core 12 Tomboy will be replaced by Gnote, a C++ port of Tomboy.
The Mono Project is sponsored by Novell, owners of the SuSE brand, who also have a deal with Microsoft, including an arrangement of not suing each other about property, copyright or patent issues (Microsoft Novell deal). For many this was and still is highly controversial. I don’t use openSuse, partly because of this deal, though I do from time to time have a look at their newest version.
Mono is an open source .NET framework, which according to their webpage “aims to make developers productive and happy: Mono 2.4 is our gift to the world.” You could argue if it’s both a gift to the world as well as it making developers productive and happy. Surely they could be as productive and happy with any other programming language, which has nothing to do with Microsoft.
Recently Microsoft has promised to not issue any patent claims when anybody implements C# and CLI (Common Language Infrastructure), covering ECMA specs 334 and 335, according to The Register. However Microsoft and promises are generally a thing to watch with distrust, so I wouldn’t count on that. Further, other APIs such as ASP.NET etc. are not covered.
Other APIs not being covered is the reason why Mono is now splitting their core sets into those covered by Microsoft promise and those who aren’t.
My opinion is that anything such as C# or any other Microsoft language / APIs in Linux taints Linux and in this case I agree with Stallman, that it could potentially be quite dangerous. Microsoft is not known for being your buddy. Just recently they sued TomTom over a VFat patent issue. While Microsoft indeed does own the patent, Samba author Andrew Tridgell claims the patent might be invalid.
That said, if you want to use Mono and C# on Linux, go ahead, but don’t be surprised if neither there won’t be that many people using Mono software nor if Microsoft turns around and starts issuing all sorts of claims.
Let me know what you think.
