[Mono-list] Ask Microsoft: Mono support

[Dan Maltes]

Pull the rug out?  It sounds so easy to say that about Microsoft because
they are so easy to hate, but really, how far could they really get legally
when all Mono has done is create "file" compatibility with MSIL code?  I
mean has Mono really done anything more than OpenOffice has done in being
able to interoperate with MS Word files or what the Wine guys have done?
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act protects this sort of thing.  Besides
all that, Microsoft would be seen as a very, very bad citizen to start
twisting arms when the last thing it needs is bad press.  Personally, I
think Mono can only help them to interoperate with hybrid windows, Linux
systems.  Part of the reason Sun and MS settled is because of customer
complaints over poor interoperability.  IMHO, trying to kill Mono would only
hurt them and it would create negative backlash against .NET itself, driving
more folks toward J2EE, etc.  So, to Microsoft I say, "Leave Mono be, and
just let it do it's job of popularizing .NET for you.  It may just be the
open source effort that saves your buts".

-----Original Message-----
From: mono-list-admin@lists.ximian.com
[mailto:mono-list-admin@lists.ximian.com] On Behalf Of Ed Burnette
Sent: Wednesday, October 27, 2004 4:50 PM
To: mono-list@lists.ximian.com
Subject: Re: [Mono-list] Ask Microsoft: Mono support

Paolo Molaro writes: "Compatibility and interoperability are nice side
effects of us choosing the CLI ECMA specs as a foundation, but, while,
important, they aren't our primary interest, which is to write and use a
good development platform on our preferred operating systems."

Of course that's your primary interest. If it wasn't, you could have used
any number of other "good" development platforms (like Java or python) on
your O/S (like Linux).

Nobody is mentioning the part where Ms. Morgan says: "Microsoft [has not]
licensed anything to Novell/Ximian". I read the position basically as (my
words) "Microsoft is happy that the Mono project gets more people to learn
and use .Net. We can point to it if anybody complains that .Net isn't
portable. But it ever poses a threat to us we reserve the right to pull the
rug out from under it".
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