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Not really a spurious argument, unless someone holds a patent on all media now. There are a few applications that rely on ffmpeg, but it does not define an entire ecosystem of software. Besides, it would take a lot of codec patent holders acting at once to torpedo media on alternative platforms. There are a lot of formats out there, and new ones emerging every week. The world is larger than ffmpeg.



This is a prime example of assuming the rest of the world is just like you. My desktop is pretty "usefull" without ffmpeg or flash, but then again, I do a lot of software development and reading. My co-workers (and most people who work a lot) have a similar lack of need for proprietary media codecs.



The patents you're talking about have loads of prior art and are widely acknowledged to pose very little threat to FOSS. The "235 patents" claim was an idiotic move by Balmer, since he then refused to name the patents in question (which puts him on difficult legal footing if MS ever tried to sue).

Mono is different, though, in that Microsoft more than likely does have decent claims on the technology that they developed.

More fundamental than all the patent nonsense, though, is the fact that going with Mono means hitching your wagon to a platform developed and controlled by a private entity with no stake in helping (and, indeed, a lot to gain by hurting) FOSS. Unless the Mono team starts employing a lot more people, they're going to be forced to play a reactionary role, something independent frameworks are not required to do.