Stupid is as stupid does.

Story: The Future of the Free Desktop in 1997Total Replies: 21
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dinotrac

Nov 08, 2006
3:02 AM EDT
What is this patent-encumbered crap?

What patents do the Mono developers claim?

I'll admit that I don't follow them that closely, but I wasn't aware that they had filed for any patents.

What patents does Mono infringe?

I'm not aware that anyone has claimed that Mono infiringes any patent.

It's possible that somebody could make that claim, but that's possible about any and all software, free or proprietary, not just Mono.
Sander_Marechal

Nov 08, 2006
3:14 AM EDT
1) Mono doesn't infringe any patents. The devs are *very* carefull about that.

2) Gnome is *not* moving to Mono (http://www.gnome.org/~seth/blog/mono). Mono is just one of 27 languages in which GTK applications can be written (see http://www.gtk.org/bindings.html). All that has happened is that a few Gnome/GTK based applications have been written in Mono and they happen to be quite popular (Beagle, F-Spot).

The article is just FUD from the Gnome/KDE flamewars.
dinotrac

Nov 08, 2006
4:21 AM EDT
>The article is just FUD from the Gnome/KDE flamewars.

Not even good FUD.

I think the silly brouhaha over the Novell-Microsoft agreement has left me hypersensitive.

Oh well. Better than dead.
Sander_Marechal

Nov 08, 2006
5:48 AM EDT
I really wonder where the "Gnome core will move to Mono" rumor comes from. Everything I've seen so far points in the exact opposite direction, but the rumor has cropped up in other threads here as well.
devnet

Nov 08, 2006
6:53 AM EDT
You gotta think that with all of the possible problems Mono has with Microsoft claiming it infringes...why they would elect to move to that for Gnome Core in the first place.

Sounds like selling a horse to buy a mule to me.
dinotrac

Nov 08, 2006
7:03 AM EDT
Do you have a link to anything from Microsoft claiming that Mono infringes any of its patents? I haven't heard of any such claims.
devnet

Nov 08, 2006
7:12 AM EDT
No direct links because Mono hasn't developed into ASP.NET, ADO.NET...but if they do, would microsoft have sued?

Not now, thanks to the ScoVell deal.

http://tirania.org/blog/
dinotrac

Nov 08, 2006
7:17 AM EDT
Ummm....

It helps to have infringement before you sue.

And, so long as we're at it, why limit your scorn to mono? MIght as well heap it on Samba, Wine, the fat drivers, the ntfs compatibility, etc, etc, etc.
devnet

Nov 08, 2006
7:49 AM EDT
Sure, why not :D

But there is always speculation that MONO infringes...there always has been. It's why it has a direct section at wikpedia addressing it.
dinotrac

Nov 08, 2006
7:55 AM EDT
>But there is always speculation

There is always speculation about many things.

Elvis isn't dead, the government is hiding aliens, we didn't land on the moon, etc.

Some speculation is more sensible than others, but speculation is speculation. It ain't fact.
tuxchick

Nov 08, 2006
8:14 AM EDT
Take a look at Utah, and tell me it isn't a dead ringer for the alleged moon photos. Hmph.
dinotrac

Nov 08, 2006
8:25 AM EDT
Utah may not be the moon, but it is at least a colony.
Sander_Marechal

Nov 08, 2006
12:24 PM EDT
Quoting:You gotta think that with all of the possible problems Mono has with Microsoft claiming it infringes...why they would elect to move to that for Gnome Core in the first place.


Thing is, I have never seen anyone (with any standing in Gnome) say that the Gnome core will move to Mono. Everytime I try to find the source I find either FUD or Beagle/F-Spot (which are just applications running on Gnome, not Gnome core)
dinotrac

Nov 08, 2006
12:42 PM EDT
Sander -

And why everybody gets so up in arms about it is beyond me.

Mono is a free software project in every sense of the word, implementing a free and open standard. If nothing else, that would seem to put it miles ahead of anything java, which doesn't seem to draw anywhere near the scorn. Lest we forget, Sun, the origin of java, has not shown any special kindness toward free software.
dcparris

Nov 08, 2006
1:24 PM EDT
> Utah may not be the moon, but it is at least a colony.

Which may help explain the actions of a certain cadre of space cadets in that region. ;-)
jezuch

Nov 08, 2006
2:39 PM EDT
Quoting:Thing is, I have never seen anyone (with any standing in Gnome) say that the Gnome core will move to Mono.


I remember that not long ago there was some kind of discussion about choosing between Java and Mono for future base of Gnome. It's somewhat funny (Java and GNU??) but I do remember reading some news about it... No links at hand, though.
tuxchick

Nov 08, 2006
2:53 PM EDT
Pleeeeez $deity noooo, even though I am not a Gnome fan, I do not wish it the awful fate of basing it on Java. I would not wish that on my worst enemy. Licensing issues aside, Java is poo on wheels. Java is poo raised to the infinite power. The only people who like Java are Java coders. Users can't stand it for a host of reasons. I do hope it is just some silly baseless rumor and will never happen. Just say no to Java.

jdixon

Nov 08, 2006
3:28 PM EDT
> I do hope it is just some silly baseless rumor and will never happen.

I don't think you have to worry. If Miguel had the say, Mono might be a real possibility, but not Java. If they were going to switch from C, I'd expect to switch to either Python or Ruby, based solely on what I've heard from people whose judgement I trust concerning those languages. IANAP :).
dinotrac

Nov 08, 2006
3:33 PM EDT
>I'd expect to switch to either Python or Ruby

Well, that would be one way kill the desktop. Python and ruby are both wonderful languages, but **cough** lickety-split performance ain;t a feature of either one.
jdixon

Nov 08, 2006
3:38 PM EDT
Dino:

The best writeup I could find with a brief search outlining the anti-Mono side of things is here: http://www.gnome.org/~seth/blog/mono

I don't think it's what you want, but I think it outlines the concerns fairly well.
jdixon

Nov 08, 2006
3:39 PM EDT
> but **cough** lickety-split performance ain;t a feature of either one.

It hasn't normally been considered a feature of Gnome either. :)
dcparris

Nov 08, 2006
3:41 PM EDT
Well, there's a good start using Python here: http://pywm.sourceforge.net/

;-)

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