[Mono-list] Agreement Novell - Microsoft

[Jonathan Pryor]

On Tue, 2009-06-09 at 10:15 -0700, 666lawyer wrote:
> Richard Stallman: Mono is a free implementation of Microsoft's language C#.
> Microsoft has declared itself our enemy and we know that Microsoft is
> getting
> patents on some features of C#.

I do love the implication here that if Microsoft is involved then it
should be avoided.

You are aware that Microsoft has been and/or is currently involved with
CSS, HTML, XML, C, C++, Unicode, XSLT, XQuery, and numerous other "open"
standards, correct[0]?  (Many of which are handled by standards bodies
which don't even have RAND requirements, such as ANSI/ISO which handle
the C and C++ standards, and the IETF....)

So, if Microsoft involvement is _that_ important, please let me know
when you'll abandon use of the above technologies.

(Yes, that will require dropping all of the Linux kernel (C), Gnome (C),
KDE (C++), OpenOffice.org (C++, UNO - a COM clone), bash (C), libxml
(XML), WebKit (CSS, HTML), FireFox (CSS, HTML), and...oh, EVERY OTHER
APP ON YOUR SYSTEM.)

Please get back to me when you're running a hardware Lisp system [1]
circa 1970, you (potential) patent infringer! [2]

 - Jon

[0] Go dig through http://www.microsoft.com/standards/participation.aspx
    Numerous hardware standards would -- of course -- also now be
    verboten.
[1] I'm sure RMS would prefer this anyway.
[2] I'm not entirely sure if this is tongue-in-cheek or not.