Linked by Thom Holwerda on Fri 29th May 2009 22:32 UTC, submitted by lemur2
If there is one technology in the Linux world that ruffles feathers whenever it's mentioned, it's Mono, the open source .Net clone. Since .Net comes out of Microsoft, and has some patents encircling it, it is said to be a legal nightmare. Supposedly, you can obtain a "royalty-free, reasonable and non-discriminatory" license from Microsoft regarding the patents surrounding Mono. iTWire decided to look at just how easy (or hard) it is to get such a license. Turns out it's kind of hard.
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Member since:
2006-02-06
I have to say I fear for the result of Mono entrenching itself on the Desktop Linux, as much as I fear the same regarding Silverlight getting wide spread usage on the internet.
Don't take me wrong, I work with Microsoft .Net Framework for a living (although I can't say I'm the best programmer... which is sad to admit), and I recognize it is a very interesting technology to work with.
My problem is that, as long as there is no official guarantee whatsoever, at least up until now, that they will never be put under a license that forces the developers to pay, even if it's US$ 0.01, for it's usage on each deployed system.
I can't even imagine the result it would have on Gnome desktop if, after having it entrenched on the main parts of the desktop, they suddenly had to pay for each user they had. It would be unfeasible, and end up, if not killing, crippling the project until all the parts using Mono are rewritten to avoid the licensing costs.
I just hope those who don't care about Mono because it doesn't affect them, or simply because they don't use it directly, start thinking about this kind of scenario. Because it is possible. If it's likely or not, I leave that to your own conclusions: we all have different opinions on that. But it is possible, and it's a risk that I don't think we, as a community, should take.