Linked by Thom Holwerda on Mon 13th Dec 2010 19:27 UTC, submitted by lemur2
For the most time, I've been firmly in the largest camp when it comes to the Mono debate - the 'I don't care'-camp. With patent lawsuits being hotter than Lady Gaga right now, that changed. For good reason, so it seems; while firmly in the 'ZOMG-MICROSOFT-IS-T3H-EVILL!1!!ONE!'-camp, The-Source.com investigated the five most popular Mono applications, and the conclusion is clear: all of them implement a lot of namespaces which are not covered by Microsoft's community promise thing.
Permalink for comment 453502
To read all comments associated with this story, please click here.
To read all comments associated with this story, please click here.
Member since:
2005-10-02
It only protects OpenJDK itself and derivatives that comply fully with the proprietary specification. Oracle can at any given time decide to cease development of OpenJDK and stick to the proprietary Oracle JDK. Then we have a dead OpenJDK that we cannot develop further without the risk of getting sued by Oracle. This is exactly the same risk mono is running.
The "risk" with mono is that U.S.-citizens might end in a situation where their chosen platform is killed off by Microsoft. The "risk" with Java (the VM, not the language) is that U.S.-citizens might end in a situation where their chosen platform is killed off by Oracle.
Of cours, the rest of us, living in countries without software patents couldn't care less. And I for one refuses to have my freedom limited just because you don't understand that to be free you must "violate" the software patents. Only through civil disobedience can you bring down the silly laws.
EDIT: Users of python, ruby, Open Object REXX and so on are running the same risks. They too can - in theory - be shut down at any given moment. It is highly unrealistic though, but so is the shutdown of mono and OpenJDK. In case Microsoft/Oracle try to do that, the development will simply carry on on European servers
Edited 2010-12-14 15:24 UTC