Slashdot Mirror


Attachmate Fires Mono Developers

darthcamaro writes "Love it or hate it, Novell's open source Mono project has inspired a lot of debate over the last 7 years. Mono brings .NET to Linux, with some interesting patent connections. The project is now at a crossroads, with news today that Attachmate had laid off the US based development team for Mono."

10 of 362 comments (clear)

  1. Looks like Attachmate didn't want Linux by Omnifarious · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Firing the mono developers didn't convince me of this. It's the fact they're basically moving Linux development to all be under a european division and giving them control over all the decisions. It's like they got that odd Linux thing and don't know exactly what to do with it.

    I worked at Attachmate for awhile, and this doesn't really surprise me.

    1. Re:Looks like Attachmate didn't want Linux by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 3, Insightful

      It's the fact they're basically moving Linux development to all be under a european division and giving them control over all the decisions. It's like they got that odd Linux thing and don't know exactly what to do with it.

      Or maybe they realize that the US Patent system hopelessly f'ks things up for Linux development. Or if not hopelessly, at least expensively.

      --
      My God, it's Full of Source!
      OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
  2. Re:Good. by mysidia · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The danger is that Microsoft is probably planning to force all free C# implementations underground some day using software patents.

    No, C# itself is covered by an open standard. Your suggestion of Microsoft Patent Ire is entirely academic, and Microsoft's patents covering Linux kernel technology are much greater concern

    And with Java, the danger is not academic. Oracle is actually suing Google over patents for their implementation resembling Java.

  3. Re:Good. by Microlith · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ECMA standards don't protect you from patent lawsuits. Especially not when the standard is saddled with RAND patents (which virtually guarantee that open source usage is out the window.)

  4. Re:Not many tears by Etrigoth · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Ok, I'm not going to wholesale bite but you really need to bring some Citation to this FUD.

    You see, a simple google search results in this: http://mono-project.com/Compatibility

    Which show's that as far as base libraries and feature support, Mono is almost all there with full .Net 4.0.

    Seeing as that's the latest version of .Net and not even the latest version that a lot of businesses are targeting, would suggest that Mono isn't lagging at all.

    --
    When we remember we are all mad, the mysteries disappear and life stands explained.
  5. GOOD: Just think of energy saved... by alexmin · · Score: 3, Insightful

    By not loading up multi-megabyte runtime to print "Hello world!"

  6. Re:Not many tears by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    As someone that build's cross platform .NET apps using Mono, you should definitely STFU, and you obviously are talking out your ass. .NET compatibility in mono these days is steller. The only things we really lack are features of Visual Studio, not so much mono itself. MonoDevelop however is pretty dang good. In .NET we've been getting some amazing database ORM's that point & click to build your DAL automatically for you. In mono its a little bit more old-fashioned having to invoke command line for auto-generation. WPF obviously is not available, as to be expected when developing cross platform, so you use GTK. Go back to fox news dude.

  7. Re:Good. by Dragonslicer · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Are you sure that you aren't confusing C# with .Net? C# is a programming language that is standardized by ECMA and ISO. .Net is a framework that can be used by several programming languages, including C#. I know that there are issues with many patents that have been granted in the United States, but I would still be surprised if Microsoft has patents on a language specification.

  8. Re:Good. by binarylarry · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Java is open source, GPL even, and has a patent covenant from Oracle not to sue for it's use.

    How much better could it fit in the GNU ecosystem?

    --
    Mod me down, my New Earth Global Warmingist friends!
  9. Re:Good. by Gadget_Guy · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Microsoft has not only embraces Mono but showcases it.

    Since I know Microsoft well, that is all the reason I need to avoid Mono now and forever.

    So on one hand we have people stating that we should avoid Mono because Microsoft does not like the competition and will eventually crush it with their patents, while on the other hand we should avoid Mono because Microsoft likes it and showcases it as evidence of the .NET CLR cross platform status.

    It seems Microsoft can't do anything right!

    I hope you are not under the misapprehension that Miguel de Icaza has a shred of credibility left with anyone, least of all me.

    It is quite damning of Miguel that he has lost the support of the paranoid set. So what has he actually done? He has created a programming platform that works, has withstood the test of time, and that has not been crushed under the legal might if Microsoft. He proved the naysayers wrong.