[Mono-list] RE: Is it Mono safe?

[Christopher McGinnis]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Mark Easton [mailto:measton@tebiki.co.uk] 
> Sent: Thursday, May 20, 2004 12:31 PM
> To: mono-list@lists.ximian.com
> Subject: [Mono-list] RE: Is it Mono safe?

> While there's a strong urge for Linuxites to dislike any 
> technology that's related to MS, real developers should be 
> without technical prejudice and the benefits of Mono pretty 
> much speaks for themselves.

I would have to whole heartedly agree.  Good technology is good technology
no mater where it comes from.  I know a human thing to hate everything that
comes from something which is utterly loathed, but the intelligent man would
give credit where credit is due.

> Sure there's a chance that MS might do some patent slapping 
> at some point, but is it really going to be worth their 
> while?  After all, Mono makes it a lot easier to integrate 
> Windows solutions with cross-platform software and it makes 
> .NET much more attractive for organisations who're afraid of 
> vendor entrenchment or have reams of legacy software running 
> on assorted boxes.  
> 
> I personally feel that MS is going to be over the moon when 
> Mono stabilises as it will help MS to push their products 
> onto non-Windows platforms and it will help MS push .NET to 
> organisations that might otherwise consider Java and OSS. 

 
> If you'll forgive the blasphemy, perhaps what's required for 
> Linux to finally 'succeed' on the desktop is for MS to 
> release .NET versions of their product lines - Imagine the 
> joy of Windows Media Player on Linux!

Mono is going to allow is the legions of Windows programmers to easily start
leveraging their skills on the Linux/Unix platform.  I'm sure that scares
and angers the "Linux is the only way" type people because their territory
is going to be encroached upon but the people who have helped to support the
thing they hate so much.  This kind of development can only help to further
Linux usage because no longer will installations of software need to be
configured, compiled, and installed.  The user can skip all that and just
install whatever application they wish to use.

Christopher McGinnis