Linked by Thom Holwerda on Wed 1st Jul 2009 20:49 UTC
The Mono discussion may be tiring, but the fact of the matter is that thanks to this discussion, various major Linux distributions are now making official statements detailing their position in the Mono/C# debate. The latest to do this is Ubuntu, which reiterated their position yesterday.
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Member since:
2006-02-26
There are two issues that ease the patent threat in my mind:
1) Mono is backed by the OIN. Which effectively means that any assault on Mono has the possibility of unleashing patent Armageddon, and:
2) The legal doctrine of estoppel. From my (admittedly limited, IANAL) legal point of view, Microsoft has made many moves supporting the development of alternate .NET platforms (releasing a shared source CLR, standardizing C#, supporting development of Moonlight with documentation and codecs), and has made none to directly discourage the development of Mono. Given this, it seems that estoppel would be a viable defense to any patent assertions against Mono. I'd be interested in a lawyer's opinion on this.
Overall, I think the bickering over Mono is more damaging to the community than anything Microsoft could possibly do. I said the same thing amidst all the ruckus after the Microsoft/Novell deal was signed.
Basically, I can't see any reason why Microsoft would want to attack Mono. Patent litigation is expensive, and in this case, risky. Keeping your mouth shut and letting the FOSS community rip itself apart is cheap and easy.
Carry on.