07.16.07
Mono Cleanup: Work in Progress (Updated)
Let us just call it a “cleanup”, not a “quarantine”. As we have said many times before, Mono is dangerous to the future of Free software (listen to this audio clip from Bruce Perens if you are not convinced). A friend of mine has just made some progress on ‘cleaning up’ of Linux distributions, starting with Gobuntu (Fedora, which he maintains, is next up).
From the Gobuntu Wiki:
Name of Software
Submitter
Cause of Submit
Gstreamer
F4l3
patents
Linuxsampler
F4l3
[…] Mono
KeithGRobertsonTurner
patent encumbered with untrustworthy RAND clause from Microsoft
Mono dependants (ex. Beagle)
KeithGRobertsonTurner
Audit requiredt
Nvidia-xconfig
F4l3
used for configuring non-free drivers
Samba
F4l3
patents, reverse engineering
Vlc
F4l3
patents
From another friend:
After a brief search, I found that mono provides Microsoft .Net capability in Linux.
Thus I agree with you both. Microsoft by doing so is trying to establish itself as a standard by getting Linux ISV’s to support .Net.
We saw what happened when Linux supported SMB (Samba). Microsoft changed the goal post and AFAIK inhibited Linux servers from being the primary domain controller. This locked in a Microsoft server, which kept one from developing an independent Linux server environment, breaking co-existence with Microsoft desktop clients.
I would like to see a break away from the Microsoft paradigm once and for all.
Speaking of patent-encumbered technology, the New Work Times has published an article which says that patents do not pay off. FUD as a factor aside, return on revenue does not outweigh the spendings
For most public companies, patents don’t pay off, say a couple of researchers who have crunched the numbers.
The Inquirer has a new short piece on IBM and patents in Europe.
The EIOP is a bit more friendly to the open saucers and the anti-software patent campaigners such as the FFII and the Green Alliance.
Kappos said that the reason for this is that these groups are indicative of trends within the software industry towards open innovation and collaborative development.
Update: there is a lot more about IBM patents and Europe here.
Highlight: Novell was the first to acknowledge that Microsoft FUD tactics had substance. Novell then used anti-Linux FUD to market itself. 
Highlight: Xandros let Microsoft make patent claims and brag about (paid-for) OOXML support. 
Highlight: Linspire's CEO not only fell into Microsoft arms, but he also assisted the company's attack on GNU/Linux. 
Highlight: Microsoft craves pseudo (proprietary) standards and gets its way using proxies and influence which it buys. 
Highlight: The invasion into the open source world is intended to leave Linux companies neglected, due to financial incentives from Microsoft. 
Analysis: Xen, an open source hypervisor, possibly fell victim to Microsoft's aggressive (and stealthy) acquisition-by-proxy strategy.
Stephen said,
July 17, 2007 at 4:38 am
I find it amusing that an industry luminary such as Jeremy Allison can support a patent encumbered technology (reverse engineered at that) and dismiss himself from Novell over patent issues. Have I missed something more fundamental here?
Roy Schestowitz said,
July 17, 2007 at 6:19 am
The only rebuttal I can think of (I wondered the same thing) is the European Commission’s decision that the technology was too trivial to be patentable.