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Not quite useless. As it is now open-source (!free: this is as free as GPL'd software is), we can look forward to a new round of system attacks thanks to the visible security holes.
I don't know why they'd go through with that rumor. I guess Microsoft thought they hadn't shot themselves in the foot enough lately.
Not to mention that MS would then expect a patent tax from everyone who based off of that code....
Speaking of which, it seems that Microsoft explicitly voids even the "read-only" part of the license if you're not developing for Windows.
"The .NET Framework source is being released under a read-only reference license. When we announced that we were releasing the source back in October, some people had concerns about the potential impact of their viewing the source. To help clarify and address these concerns, we made a small change to the license to specifically call out that the license does not apply to users developing software for a non-Windows platform that has 'the same or substantially the same features or functionality' as the .NET Framework. If the software you are developing is for Windows platforms, you can look at the code, even if that software has "the same or substantially the same features or functionality" as the .NET Framework."
So if you're writing something for a platform other than Windows, you're not allowed to look at the source. I guess this rules out people who write for two platforms simultaneously, as well.
This license is just oh so very useful.
Edited 2008-01-17 18:30 UTC





Member since:
2006-07-26
Does mono implement their own libraries or do they use the actual binaries from .NET?