Being owned in court by Microsoft due to patent infringement.
Or more likely, losing customers because mid development cycle Microsoft starts threatening to sue companies using Mono, as it infringes their patents.
They've rattled this sabre before.
They'll have to disclose the patents that they believe cover the implementation. Then the patents can be worked around, and the issue is solved.
They'll also have patents for many things, from the kernel up to the desktop. If they're going to sue users of Mono, why wouldn't they sue users of other software that also 'infringe' their patents? Mono at least has the excuse that it's implementing an international standard.
I'd call myself anti-Mono, but only because I've actually tried to use it. Trying to load a folder of 100 camera JPEGs into F-Spot (on a Core 2 Duo with 4GB of RAM), and then seeing the entire GUI lock up for 3-4 minutes isn't my idea of a user friendly experience. For the GNOME Project, evidently it is.
"For the GNOME Project"? Why not say "for the F-Spot developers"? It uses the gnome libraries, but it's not an official gnome application.
Also, the current version is 0.5.0.3. Evidently the developers don't think it deserves to be marked 1.0 yet either. You can no doubt find badly implemented applications in nearly any language and framework around.
MS's CEO made specific patent trolling threats against Linux in no uncertain fashion, combine this with their "agreements" with Novell and other Linux packagers and you know what they are aiming at.
They no doubt have patents that cover aspects of the Linux kernel, Xorg, MESA, KDE, GNOME, and just about every other layer of the system. As others have stated, if the Mono project is notified of patent infringement, they will resolve it by either reimplementing in a way that avoids the patent, or remove the functionality if there is no way around it. The same as the other projects will handle it if it is brought to their attention and they want to continue distribution in the US.
Slashdot Mirror
Being owned in court by Microsoft due to patent infringement.
Or more likely, losing customers because mid development cycle Microsoft starts threatening to sue companies using Mono, as it infringes their patents.
They've rattled this sabre before.
They'll have to disclose the patents that they believe cover the implementation. Then the patents can be worked around, and the issue is solved. They'll also have patents for many things, from the kernel up to the desktop. If they're going to sue users of Mono, why wouldn't they sue users of other software that also 'infringe' their patents? Mono at least has the excuse that it's implementing an international standard.
I'd call myself anti-Mono, but only because I've actually tried to use it. Trying to load a folder of 100 camera JPEGs into F-Spot (on a Core 2 Duo with 4GB of RAM), and then seeing the entire GUI lock up for 3-4 minutes isn't my idea of a user friendly experience. For the GNOME Project, evidently it is.
"For the GNOME Project"? Why not say "for the F-Spot developers"? It uses the gnome libraries, but it's not an official gnome application. Also, the current version is 0.5.0.3. Evidently the developers don't think it deserves to be marked 1.0 yet either. You can no doubt find badly implemented applications in nearly any language and framework around.
MS's CEO made specific patent trolling threats against Linux in no uncertain fashion, combine this with their "agreements" with Novell and other Linux packagers and you know what they are aiming at.
They no doubt have patents that cover aspects of the Linux kernel, Xorg, MESA, KDE, GNOME, and just about every other layer of the system. As others have stated, if the Mono project is notified of patent infringement, they will resolve it by either reimplementing in a way that avoids the patent, or remove the functionality if there is no way around it. The same as the other projects will handle it if it is brought to their attention and they want to continue distribution in the US.