[Mono-list] bad news from microsoft

[Guy Murphy]

Hiyas.

We knew that, and we still know that. The statement doesn't add anything to what we all knew to be so.

MS is a non-Open Source, for profit company, that intends to defend it patents so that it can exploit that... there's nothing new in that. An as the current business environent stands there's nothing unusual about this approach to seeking commercial gain... again we all knew this.

It was my understanding that the Mono project would be implementing the public interfaces published under the auspices of the ECMA standardisation process, and would be taking grat care not to infringe any patents (I'm sure somebody can narrow down the accuracy of this assumption).

Sun flirted with the ECMA but then backed out when the ECMA made it clear that it was only interested in genuine independent standards. Microsoft has made clear it's intent to persue the process through to the end, and not pull a Sun.... so far we have nothing to indicate that MS are going to "pull a Sun"... and that friends is what we're contemplating, Microsoft "pulling a Sun". Playing like an open standard, when in fact it's a closed standard, keeping your fist around it, and not sharing your toys with the other big kids. 

[And if one were to speculate one might wonder if it's the prosepect of an open Java-like standard that has IBM and Intel iterested... "word on the street" speculates as to the frustration of these two parties over Sun's closed fist around Java... and yes that's spin. Just illustrating how one can spin a top in either direction.]

There is no new information here with regard to the legal position of Mono. Yes it is of interest,and thanks for posting (genuinely), but it changes nothing, restricts nothing, inhibits nothing that was not already the case, resitricted, or inhibited.

Sooooo, why is this bad news?... and if it is bad news, what was the news we were expecting?

[And I swear if I see any more cute "M$" references I'm going to start screaming, and I don't know when I'll be able to stop.... IBM, HP, Intel, Sun, AOL/TW, Sony, Fujitsu, MS et al. are all hulking great Gorillas, all in it to make the biggest buck they can, and MS aint even the biggest Gorilla by a long shot... "M$" is so f****** naive by implication its untrue.]

Cheers,
	Guy.

[snip]
 "We have put so much Millions
in .NET, we have so many patents on .NET, which we want to "pflegen"  (i
can't find the correct translation - it means the want to use the patents)"
[snip]