Linux Buzz: cat /dev/DiBona/brain: Considering Mono

  • Thread starter Thread starter Lethargy
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Lethargy

http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=7554

The question for the Free Software community to ruminate is this: Is
supporting Mono supporting our own desktop downfall? A statement
attributed to Steve Ballmer at a party a few years ago would support
this possibility. To paraphrase, when asked about Mono, he shrugged it
off with a statement alluding to the fact if Mono got too popular,
that's what lawyers are for. Mind you this is friend-of-a-friend kind of
hearsay, but it is worth noting regardless.

Because Mono works off the ECMA spec for C# and the CLI, and because
Novell has the legal resources to make the idle-lawyer threat less
effective, I don't think this is some long-plotted submarine trick
designed to disrupt free software adoption. In the long run a healthy
Mono that can run .Net apps natively is as important to Linux as a good
JVM is--that is to say, very important.
 
hmmmm...microsoft vs novell...you're kidding right? msft will eat
novell for breakfast. we're not talking ibm here.

unfortunately, not only is mono a trojan horse threat to linux because
of patent issues a la sco (but worse, since microsoft is the holder),
but i'm not exactly sure how you're gonna make a living off of it. sun
is becoming the #1 linux desktop vendor, and i cannot imagine them
ever letting mono even come close to their distribution.

on the other hand, it looks like Java is quietly gaining steam on the
desktop because (1) more than 60% of all windows desktops ship with
the standard JVM right now, and this figure is going up as sun makes
deals with the hardware vendors; (2) the sun java desktop is gaining
ground left and right (e.g. more than 200 million going to china in
the next 3-5 years), and that of course has the JVM; *3) all mac os x
desktops have the standard JVM, etc:

http://www.jroller.com/page/kalimantan/20040423#who_is_knocking_at_my
 
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