A Mono developer responds to a request for "a calm presentation of why Mono is desirable, why it is not a threat, and why it should be included in Ubuntu by default" answering the three questions individually, then attempting to address general anti-Mono sentiment.
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Member since:2005-07-06
Member since:2005-07-06
ffmpeg is a media player plugin (one of many), not a full platform upon which an entire ecosystem of software may depend.
Spurious argument. If ffmpeg is affected with a patent attack for a proprietary media format, all those other codecs supporting it are in the kitty as well.
You tell me how usefull a GNU/Linux desktop is without support for proprietary formats. If codecs would be impossible to get into the distro's (legal or illegal), no one except RMS would use desktop GNU/Linux. Vorbis and Theora don't carry us far.
How many fundamental GUI patents are infringed? How many shady patents rest on VM framworks in general, including Java? Our beloved Linux kernel is said to be infinging 235 patents. Why do we build our FOSS desktop on quicksand?
Member since:
2006-12-22
I will answer with one user answer: I use Gnome Do, F-Spot, Tomboy, and Banshee daily. Without them, I don’t know if I’d use Gnome at all. None of the C/C++/Python/etc alternatives I’ve tried have been nearly as nice.
Thank you so much for this post. I face Mono FUD every time I mention any of the products above. In my life Mono has only ever been an extremely positive force, and I can’t imagine its any more of a patent risk than every other piece of free software. Hell I “illegally” use ffmpeg every day, and I would guess most Mono haters do as well. Not sure why they aren’t scared of patents in one case (ffmpeg) where there have already been legal threats, and quaking in their boots over Mono which as you stated is just implementing an international standard.
(FWIW I’m a Python web developer who has been using Debian & Ubuntu as my sole OS for a few years now.)
Thanks for your hard work on Mono! Its definitely *very* appreciated!
Please pick the sad thing...