Linked by Thom Holwerda on Tue 16th Jun 2009 17:11 UTC
Last week we talked about whether or not the Debian project would include Mono in its default GNOME installation. This incited some heavy debate on OSNews, but sadly, the Mono debate also lead to some very nasty blog posts in the Debian community. Time for damage control, Debian project leader Steve McIntyre must've thought.
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Member since:2005-07-06
What, you mean something like this?
http://www.waveprotocol.org/patent-license
Insane really. All the Mono people had to do was get Microsoft to make a public statement like this rather than saying they have non-existent letters and referring to cloak and daggers postings on mailing lists.
Edited 2009-06-16 18:33 UTC
RE[2]: Show me the license
by david g on Tue 16th Jun 2009 19:30
in reply to "RE: Show me the license"
Member since:2005-07-08
All the Mono people had to do was get Microsoft to make a public statement like this rather than saying they have non-existent letters and referring to cloak and daggers postings on mailing lists.
You make it sound as though all they had to do was ask Microsoft, and MS would willingly and immediately make such a statement. How do you know someone hasn't already asked and Microsoft refused? I doubt MS would do something like that unless they had a clear business case for it. But that doesn't automatically mean there's a actual patent conflict.
Member since:2005-07-08
Util someone shows me how to obtain a royalty free license from .NET i will stay away from Mono.
Do you insist on patent licenses from competitors for all software you use? Do MySQL and PostgreSQL have MSSQL patent licences? Does OpenOffice.org have MS Office patent licenses? Does Mozilla have MSIE patent licenses? What makes MONO so special?
RE[2]: Show me the license
by Matzon on Tue 16th Jun 2009 19:48
in reply to "RE: Show me the license"
Member since:2005-07-06
its created by someone that has sued linux distributors and has special deals with some of them. Furthermore mono is based on, and implements, code that is created by same company that has at numerous occasions told that linux infringes multiple patents that they own.
basing your future existence (tomboy is just the spearhead of the invasion, ahem) on said platform is naive at best.
yes, I exaggerate to get my point through.
RE[2]: Show me the license - MS-SQL?
by jabbotts on Wed 17th Jun 2009 12:02
in reply to "RE: Show me the license"
Member since:2007-09-06
Microsoft has a database server which uses SQL but they didn't invent the language nor do they own patents against it as far as I know. They bought and rebranded the SQL database server like most of there other products. Even then, the SQL language is still a separate entity from the database server which happens to interpret it. MySQL and PostgreSQL are two other databases which happen to use SQL language to interact with data tables. Your suggesting that one has ownership over English because they happen to publish a dictionary.
Also, as someone else has pointed out; Microsoft has repeatedly threatened patent litigation and publicly denounced Linux based software as a cancer. To look at this another way, every day on your way to work the same guy jumps out from behind a push and punches you in the face. One day he steps out and offers to shake your hand; are you not going to be watching his other hand to see if it's making a fist?
RE: Show me the license
by StaubSaugerNZ on Tue 16th Jun 2009 20:54
in reply to "Show me the license"
Member since:2007-07-13
Util someone shows me how to obtain a royalty free license from .NET i will stay away from Mono.
Please Mr. de Icaza show me the easy steps that is necessary to have my roalty free license
Please Mr. de Icaza show me the easy steps that is necessary to have my roalty free license
Yes!
Just like the royalty free patent grant for compatible implementations included in Sun JDK license.
Member since:2005-07-07
You might also want to stay away from h.264, mp3, and aac codecs. Don't use samba either, as the SMB protocol is also patent encumbered. Considering SMB is a part of the Linux kernel I guess that precludes you from using Linux anyway so I guess its time to try a new operating system.
I've said it before and I'll say it again, if people are really that worried about Mono then they should be worried about a slew of other potentially infringing software but they don't seem to be. The problem is patents, not Mono. If you want to put your head in the sand when it comes to every other piece of software what is making you come up for air when someone mentions Mono?
RE[2]: Show me the license
by vivainio on Wed 17th Jun 2009 15:31
in reply to "RE: Show me the license"
Member since:2008-12-26
You might also want to stay away from h.264, mp3, and aac codecs. Don't use samba either, as the SMB protocol is also patent encumbered. Considering SMB is a part of the Linux kernel I guess that precludes you from using Linux anyway so I guess its time to try a new operating system.
The discussion is going in circles...
Programming language is a different thing from an application. Even if the whole Linux thing turned out to be completely illegal (unlikely), you could switch over to working on Solaris/whatever in a heartbeat (without eliminating your previous investment). If your programming language turned out to be illegal, you will be in real trouble.
RE[2]: Show me the license
by niemau on Wed 17th Jun 2009 16:04
in reply to "RE: Show me the license"
Member since:2007-06-28
I've said it before and I'll say it again, if people are really that worried about Mono then they should be worried about a slew of other potentially infringing software but they don't seem to be. The problem is patents, not Mono. If you want to put your head in the sand when it comes to every other piece of software what is making you come up for air when someone mentions Mono?
well, then you've ignored it before and will ignore it again. people ARE really "worried about a slew of other potentially infringing software". however, this conversation is *specifically about MONO*. right now, there is a concentrated effort to expand mono's presence in the default installations of several linux distributions, so it's sort of a hot topic. and it's not just about patents, either.
RE[2]: Show me the license
by lemur2 on Thu 18th Jun 2009 02:07
in reply to "RE: Show me the license"
Member since:2007-02-17
You might also want to stay away from h.264, mp3, and aac codecs. Don't use samba either, as the SMB protocol is also patent encumbered. Considering SMB is a part of the Linux kernel I guess that precludes you from using Linux anyway so I guess its time to try a new operating system.
The SMB protocol is not patent encumbered. The SMB protocol is a free-for-anyone-to-implement invention of IBM's.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Server_Message_Block#History
Samba is not part of the Linux kernel.
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Member since:
2007-09-24
Util someone shows me how to obtain a royalty free license from .NET i will stay away from Mono.
Please Mr. de Icaza show me the easy steps that is necessary to have my roalty free license