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Could Mono Kill Gnome?
Jrbl writes "NewsForge is running This editorial by Tina Gasperson about the possible implications for GNOME if it gets Mono (which allows patented components.) There's also a reference to this article at The Register in which Miguel de Icaza raves about Microsoft."
If you get a map showing you how to get to Grandma's house faster (but it happens to go by the wolf's den), do you follow it without caution, or do you grab a shotgun first?
.NET architecture is a good idea (it is), and if we should implement it (we should).
/. post), is to wonder if we are setting ourselves up to be eaten by Microsoft (or indeed, anyone who may lay claim to the Mono libraries). It has become clear that Gnome could be effectively taken out through the current licencing. Microsoft would love to beat us at our own game - and use its influence on other companies to pull rank on Gnome and kill it, especially if Gnome/Mono does becomes a huge success.
I don't think that the question here is if the
The point of the editorial (and of the
Too much money is at stake in the next round of operating systems to leave anything to chance. Microsoft (and Intel for that matter) is setting themselves up for a free shot at Gnome if it ever starts threating the status quo. Thats scary to me.
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Could Mono kill Gnome
I sure as hell don't know but I'm pretty sick of watching the redundancy in Linux. Sure, most of it has a purpose but I might be able to use the damn software if people made sacrifices for the sake of getting a desktop product out. I'm not trying to start a flame war about whether it is good enough for *your* desktop or not so please don't start.
What I would love to see is everyone who is working on anything remotely redundant to drop what they are doing, put their collective heads together and come up with a real competitor for Microsoft in something *other* than the server market. I don't care if it is a desktop product or an TV/entertainment product.
There are too many unfinished products and not enough of One Good Thing.
BTW - I mentioned the TV thing because I am currently building a home theater PC that has caused me much grief. I see that both Microsoft and the Linux community are addressing the market.
10 to 1 odds that Microsoft finishes a product that everyone buys and bitches about while the Linux product stays in beta stage for years to come.
Sigh...
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There's a Visual Studio .Net banner ad atop the front page at 4:59 pm Eastern.
Shall we expect more open and Slashdot now? :D
[Granted, it is served through Double-Click. Does MS outsource advertising?]
Maybe I am missing something, but I don't think that MS cares whether or not there is an Open Source version of dotNet.
.Net pieces to handle each. All the while, your passport account is getting billed a small amout for each use of each different function. So instead of paying $200 for Office, you pay a small amount (say .10) for each use of the spell checker. So maybe this month, your passport bill is 19.00 for use of .Net services. Instant revenue stream.
.Net function.
.Net Development part, not the .Net Framework. And, why would MS be porting it to FreeBSD if they did not want Linux to have it as well.
Follow me on this.
Operating System wars are over. Linux is making headway, and the courts are ruling that you have to open the source code. Microsoft has seen that revenue is not going to increase with the rapid OS upgrades. They want a month to month revenue stream. So they *invent* software renting. But this is not 'hey I am going to check out MS Office for a couple hours at 19.95 an hour', it is more like this as I read it. I need a new resume, so I start a wizard in Windows 2002 that helps me write one. So while the wizard is going through each part (like spellcheck, cover letter) the wizard automagically downloads the proper
When upgrades happen, then you automagically download the latest version of the
Everything I have read is that Microsoft want to push this everywhere. They want this on every computer, every PDA, even right down to your cell phone. So I do not believe that they care that it is on Gnome. If the passport stuff is in there, then it just adds to the revenue stream. That is what they are really after.
Plus, I see Gnome trying to implement the
The only interesting thing is if MS wants the passport/hailstorm added in. Then things could get interesting.
Mono only wants to do the software development side, and there are a lot of nice things in there. It is the passport side that makes us cringe.
I think what she's trying to say, in a rather roundabout, "let me adjust my tin foil hat" sort of way, is that there's no legal precedent for this situation. Is there an implicit patent license when patented material is contributed to an Open Source project by the patent holder? Look at it this way:
- Ximian adopts X11 license for parts of Mono
- Intel contributes to X11-licensed parts, including Intel-patented code
- Gnome 4.0 is converted completely to Mono
- Gnome acheives World Domination
- Intel calls in its marker on Ximian and Gnome, demanding royalties for that Intel-patented code
- Everyone gets dragged into court
- Miguel stands up in court and says, "Of course, there's Intel-patented code in Mono. Intel put it there in the first place!"
- Intel responds, "Yep. We did."
So what happens now? Will the judge have a sudden flash of common sense and tell Intel where to stick it's legal briefs? Or will Intel's high-priced landsharks invoke some strange combination of DMCA, SSSCA, the Patriot Act, and a rider on some farm subsidy legislation to swing the case their way?It is a valid concern, and I would hate to see projects as significant as Mono and Gnome be taken down by it. But I think Tina is being a bit too alarmist.
OT: This is what Slashdot's email auto-obfuscator generated for my email address:
Hey, Taco! I do not work for Jar-Jar Binks!This sig intentionally left blank.