06.16.08
Novell Brings Mono and OpenOffice.org Even Closer
A year and a half ago someone warned that Novell would possibly ‘poison’, using patents, some good projects like OpenOffice.org, maybe even the Linux kernel. Anything which Novell is supposedly covered for while others are not makes an advantage for Novell. This happens to include Mono.
Be aware of things that are happening at Novell, as told by Miguel de Icaza a few days ago.
A few years ago, Sun implemented a .NET bridge for UNO. This bridge allowed .NET developers to script, extend and reuse open office as a library from C# or any other .NET language.
A couple of years ago, Michael Meeks and the OpenOffice community ported the bridge to work with Mono which allows developers to create OpenOffice based solutions using any of the Mono programming languages (C#, Boo, IronPython, IronRuby, F#, VB, Nemerle and so on).
But even if the engine existed, it was not properly installed in the system and getting a C#-based OpenOffice solution required lots of Unix skills, the kind of skills that would likely be in short supply by those that interested in OpenOffice automation. We fixed this in this last development cycle, so now a Novell OpenOffice installation will have everything you need.
This is not a new bridge and Mono got in contact with OpenOffice.org before. The so-called OOXML ‘translators’ Novell loves to rave about contain C#, so increasingly, Novell makes it harder to avoid Mono. It serves it well; as for everybody else — not so much.
It’s a similar situation with Novell's Evolution. And speaking of which, a vulnerability in it has just been discovered. █
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.
PitaGuy said,
June 16, 2008 at 3:41 am
Novell is making Linux developers depend on Microsoft API
Very bad move for the FOSS camp !!
I gueess this is Mircosoft doing it from the inside. They want to destroy FOSS fom inside…
As always it has been, Microsoft has suffered a huge loss whenever they tried to attack the FOSS movement. FOSS eventually won in the end, as like every other good thing that wins in the end
Dan O'Brian said,
June 16, 2008 at 6:05 pm
I’m guessing you didn’t actually read the original article you linked to, because if you had you would have noticed that SUN MICROSYSTEMS implemented the .NET bridge for OpenOffice, not Novell. Novell only fixed it up to be usable on Linux (years ago).
The article was just news that a package containing OpenOffice .NET templates for MonoDevelop has been put together.
What is so “poisonous” about that?
Roy Schestowitz said,
June 16, 2008 at 7:37 pm
I not only read it but I quoted this too.