“From the “things that could happen if Mono is incorporated into Gnome” department: Intel, having gleefully taken advantage of the MIT licensing on Mono’s class libraries, enforces its patents against every entity making use of its modifications, including the Gnome project, effectively shutting it down.” Read Tina Gasperson’s editorial at NewsForge. In any case, Gnome 2.0 Beta 1 was released for general testing today.
The Patent Trap: If Gnome Gets Mono
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
Follow me on Twitter @EugeniaLoli
As far as this article goes, this is all talk no proof. Sure the risk is there and there is some major problem with the Patent Office accepting half-blindly software algorithms without doing proper search.
I see this article as nothing but a troll. Sorry folks, nothing enlightening in there.
Yes, it’s trollish, but it also has a point.
<ol>
<li>Fact: Microsoft considers open source software to be the #1 thread to their business (see: Halloween documents, comments by Ballmer & Gates about open source being un-American, viral, etc.)</li>
<li>Fact: Microsoft exercises at the very least de facto and almost certainly legal control over what .NET is and will become.</li>
<li>Fact: Over and over again, we’ve seen Microsoft use Machiavellian strong-arm tactics takes to crush their competition. This includes corrupting formerly open standards, using their closed, undocumented standards to lock in customers, forcing OEMs and other dependent businesses to not consider competitor’s products, forging letters to Congressmen(!), etc.</li>
</ol>
Given all of the above, it’s my opinion that dealing with Microsoft is poison — if you ever want to compete with them, you’d better not play into their hands.
with all due respect, i think the halloween document is a very over-cited example, and ought to no longer be taken seriously. this document is four years old, and, with a company with the motion of microsoft, it takes much less than four years’ time to deem a stance to irrelevance.