06.27.09
Novell News Summary - Part I: OpenSUSE Factory, Education, Presence in Events
Summary: Few portions of OpenSUSE news, of which there is little
06.23.09
Open/SUSE and .NET
Summary: Microsoft lock-in still enters GNU/Linux, with Novell’s sponsorship
A QUICK look at Planet SUSE always fascinates because decent proportions of the posts there are not about SUSE. But it’s not to do with people who write about banal things in life, either. It is about some people who are employed by Novell to advance .NET and — by inference — Windows as well.
Some of the posts in Planet SUSE are purely about Windows development, with some that combine Mono and Microsoft. For example:
In Visual Studio 2010 they added much better support for targeting multiple frameworks, allowing us to target .NET 2.0 and 4.0 from the same solution, which also gives us the ability to target runtime’s such as Mono.
The examples above are from this guy, whose interests are:
C#, ASP.NET, Mono, .NET
Open/SUSE seems to be losing its focus. A lot of .NET content reaches the project and more examples are not difficult to find.
The debugger integration in MonoDevelop is progressing, lots of work in the past weeks. I’m going to show what is supported right now, altough much work is still left to make everything stable.
Here is a new example of development of MonoDevelop for Windows. The problem is that most Windows developers will use the lesser version of Visual Studio, not MonoDevelop. Regardless of Novell’s intentions, this only promotes .NET. It helps Windows [1, 2, 3]. As Robert Pogson correctly points out:
“We do not need Mono or anything else connected to that other OS,” blogger Robert Pogson told LinuxInsider via email. “Developers love GNU/Linux, which is why they are migrating to it in droves.”
GNU/Linux was “designed and created by developers from all over the planet and over many decades, stemming from UNIX,” Pogson explained. “There is nothing wrong with Mono except that it gives M$ more power over GNU/Linux. Any corporation that threatens litigation over software patents should be avoided like the plague.”
As comments on the article above (titled “Is Linux Suffering From Mono?”), consider Rainer Weikusat who wrote:
In my opinion, .NET is a pretty typical example of ‘Microsoft designed APIs’: It is both weird (for instance, there is a ‘web client’ superclass which has ‘ftp client’ and ‘ http client’ subclasses) and hellishly complicated (at least one person whom I had to work together with during the last couple of months was literally incapable of using .NET CF to accomplish something as simple as transmitting a HTTP POST-request) and those students would be much better of with learning a few other languages and especially, with getting used to the terminology based on ‘the internet standards’ (ie the IETF RFCs) than to some Microsoft-only bastardization of them which only helps to ensure that nobody can talk to a ‘.NET-developer’ about these topics except another .NET-developer and that the .NET-developer will have at least some troubles trying to understand the actual specifications of the protocol he or she is expected to work with.
GreyGeek adds:
LinuxInsider leaving a pro MS slant. In this case, a pro MONO/.NET slant. Kevin Dean is the quoted source taking over for Jo Shields as the point person calling everyone who opposes MONO in Linux as “fanatics”, etc…
[...]
In other words, Canonical CANNOT take Ubuntu commercial and still include MONO.
That last point is indeed a potential issue because “civil disobedience” would not work for a business, which is subjected to sanctions. Here is a person who is moving to Fedora because Fedora is removing Mono.
There’s a lot of hype/war on the “Mono issue” lately but I don’t want to get into all that. My opinion is, yet again, simple: nothing related to Microsoft, please. Microsoft proved themselves to be evil every step of the way. They don’t like free software, they don’t like people using free software, they don’t like companies that bundle their hardware with free software. All of these can be fine until they start bribing judges, pressuring governments (governments for crying out loud!), blackmailing OEM’s, using their licenses against every single computer user they can. We have seen a couple of their trojan horses of licenses (just a quick look at http://www.groklaw.net/ would suffice) which means we cannot and more importantly should not trust anything coming from Microsoft.
“Some people always blame mono,” says this bug report, but the point worth making is that there is no reason to lean on Microsoft. Java is the more mature software for those who require it. Microsoft is lagging in terms of programming, so to imitate it is just plainly absurd. To Novell, it is a matter of repaying Microsoft.
Even people from Microsoft don’t support what Microsoft does to programming. As Fewa showed us last night, there are testimonies too.
If you’ve ever used Microsoft Access or Excel, you have likely used a product that Mike Gunderloy had a hand in developing. The irony is that Gunderloy himself doesn’t use those products anymore. He’s given up Microsoft for open source — and he’s not going back.
Gunderloy, an Evansville, Ind.-based freelance developer for the past quarter century, goes way back with Microsoft. “I was never a full-time employee, but have several times been a contractor with a badge and [Redmond] campus access,” he says.
His contracting work — on the order of half a million dollars, Gunderloy estimates — led to a substantial amount of code contributed to the Access and Excel versions of Microsoft Office 97 and 2000. He’s also worked on other, more obscure parts of the Microsoft software empire, including SQL Server, C#, and ASP.Net.
Fewa explains:
He refused to “contribut[e] to the eventual death of programming.”[7] He states: “Microsoft itself represents a grave threat to the future of software development through its increasing inclination to stifle competition through legal shenanigans.”
Sounds like Mono. █
06.20.09
Novell News Summary - Part I: Some OpenSUSE 11.1 Reviews, Fedora Gratitude
Summary: Project news for OpenSUSE
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06.13.09
Novell News Summary - Part I: Seedlings of OpenSUSE 11.2
Summary: OpenSUSE news from the past week (not much of it)
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06.12.09
OpenSUSE Board Member Steps Down
Summary: Federico is leaving
IT HAS only been 7 months since OpenSUSE’s board elections [1, 2]. The third most-voted-for member is leaving now. He explains his reasons in the following message, which was posted publicly to the mailing lists too.
As you know, I have been part of the openSUSE Board for a few months now, thanks to your kind election. However, work and other duties have kept me too busy to be a useful part of the Board.
The community manager wrote about this a short while ago and combined with the issues in OpenSUSE Forums, this does not look promising for the project as a whole. █
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In Fedora, Tomboy and Banshee Depend on Winforms
Siouxsie and the Banshees
Summary: Banshee brings Winforms with it after all (not part of ECMA reference)
ONE of our contributors mailed us regarding this post where we were vilified for suggesting that Banshee needed Winforms. Well, our contributor says that “it’s true that Ubuntu’s implementation of Banshee does not depend on Winforms, but on Fedora 11 it does. So does Tomboy. At least, when I try and install tomboy or banshee, they both want to pull in winforms.
“Whether it is actually needed by either application I’m not sure, but even though Red Hat is shipping Fedora 11 without Tomboy installing it will pull in Windows forms by default when users install it. Whether this is actually a problem or not, I can’t say.”
Those examples we were given (as above) can be proven as follows.
For Bashee:
Loaded plugins: downloadonly, refresh-packagekit
Setting up Install Process
Resolving Dependencies
--> Running transaction check
---> Package banshee.i586 0:1.4.3-3.fc11 set to be updated
--> Processing Dependency: mono(gdk-sharp) = 2.12.0.0 for package: banshee
--> Processing Dependency: mono(notify-sharp) = 0.4.0.0 for package: banshee
--> Processing Dependency: mono(NDesk.DBus.GLib) = 1.0.0.0 for package: banshee
--> Processing Dependency: mono(Mono.Cairo) = 2.0.0.0 for package: banshee
--> Processing Dependency: mono(Mono.Addins.Setup) = 0.4.0.0 for package: banshee
--> Processing Dependency: mono(Boo.Lang.Compiler) = 2.0.0.0 for package: banshee
--> Processing Dependency: mono(mscorlib) = 2.0.0.0 for package: banshee
--> Processing Dependency: mono(Mono.Addins.Gui) = 0.4.0.0 for package: banshee
--> Processing Dependency: mono(pango-sharp) = 2.12.0.0 for package: banshee
--> Processing Dependency: mono(MusicBrainz) = 1.4.0.0 for package: banshee
--> Processing Dependency: mono(Mono.Data.SqliteClient) = 2.0.0.0 for package: banshee
--> Processing Dependency: mono(gconf-sharp) = 2.24.0.0 for package: banshee
--> Processing Dependency: mono(System.Xml) = 2.0.0.0 for package: banshee
--> Processing Dependency: mono(glib-sharp) = 2.12.0.0 for package: banshee
--> Processing Dependency: mono(System) = 2.0.0.0 for package: banshee
--> Processing Dependency: mono(System.Web) = 2.0.0.0 for package: banshee
--> Processing Dependency: mono(Mono.Addins) = 0.4.0.0 for package: banshee
--> Processing Dependency: mono(Mono.Posix) = 2.0.0.0 for package: banshee
--> Processing Dependency: mono(gtk-sharp) = 2.12.0.0 for package: banshee
--> Processing Dependency: mono(ICSharpCode.SharpZipLib) = 2.84.0.0 for package: banshee
--> Processing Dependency: mono(System.Data) = 2.0.0.0 for package: banshee
--> Processing Dependency: mono(glade-sharp) = 2.12.0.0 for package: banshee
--> Processing Dependency: mono(Mono.Zeroconf) = 2.0.0.76 for package: banshee
--> Processing Dependency: mono(NDesk.DBus) = 1.0.0.0 for package: banshee
--> Processing Dependency: mono(gnome-sharp) = 2.24.0.0 for package: banshee
--> Processing Dependency: banshee-musicbrainz = 1.4.3-3.fc11 for package: banshee
--> Processing Dependency: mono(taglib-sharp) = 2.0.3.2 for package: banshee
--> Processing Dependency: podsleuth for package: banshee
--> Processing Dependency: mono-addins for package: banshee
--> Running transaction check
---> Package banshee-musicbrainz.i586 0:1.4.3-3.fc11 set to be updated
---> Package boo.i586 0:0.8.1.2865-6.fc11 set to be updated
--> Processing Dependency: mono(NAnt.DotNetTasks) = 0.85.2478.0 for package: boo
--> Processing Dependency: mono(NAnt.Core) = 0.85.2478.0 for package: boo
---> Package gnome-sharp.i586 0:2.24.0-3.fc11 set to be updated
---> Package gtk-sharp2.i586 0:2.12.7-4.fc11 set to be updated
---> Package mono-addins.i586 0:0.4-6.20091702svn127062.1.fc11 set to be updated
---> Package mono-core.i586 0:2.4-19.fc11 set to be updated
--> Processing Dependency: mono(monodoc) = 1.0.0.0 for package: mono-core
--> Processing Dependency: mono(System.Configuration.Install) = 1.0.5000.0 for package: mono-core
---> Package mono-data.i586 0:2.4-19.fc11 set to be updated
---> Package mono-data-sqlite.i586 0:2.4-19.fc11 set to be updated
---> Package mono-web.i586 0:2.4-19.fc11 set to be updated
--> Processing Dependency: mono(System.Design) = 2.0.0.0 for package: mono-web
---> Package mono-zeroconf.i586 0:0.7.6-8.fc11 set to be updated
--> Processing Dependency: mono(avahi-sharp) = 1.0.0.0 for package: mono-zeroconf
---> Package ndesk-dbus.i586 0:0.6.1a-4.fc11 set to be updated
---> Package ndesk-dbus-glib.i586 0:0.4.1-4.fc11 set to be updated
---> Package notify-sharp.i586 0:0.4.0-0.6.20080912svn.fc11 set to be updated
---> Package podsleuth.i586 0:0.6.3-2.fc11 set to be updated
---> Package taglib-sharp.i586 0:2.0.3.2-2.fc11 set to be updated
--> Running transaction check
---> Package avahi-sharp.i586 0:0.6.25-1.fc11 set to be updated
---> Package mono-extras.i586 0:2.4-19.fc11 set to be updated
---> Package mono-winforms.i586 0:2.4-19.fc11 set to be updated
---> Package monodoc.i586 0:2.4-19.fc11 set to be updated
---> Package nant.i586 1:0.85-27.fc11 set to be updated
--> Processing Dependency: mono(nunit.util) = 2.2.10.0 for package: nant
--> Processing Dependency: mono(ICSharpCode.SharpCvsLib) = 0.35.3721.507 for package: nant
--> Processing Dependency: mono(nunit.core) = 2.2.10.0 for package: nant
--> Processing Dependency: mono(log4net) = 1.2.10.0 for package: nant
--> Processing Dependency: mono(NDoc.Core) = 1.3.3344.0 for package: nant
--> Running transaction check
---> Package log4net.i586 0:1.2.10-5.fc11 set to be updated
---> Package mono-ndoc.i586 0:1.3.1-4.fc11 set to be updated
---> Package mono-nunit22.i586 1:2.2.10-9.fc11 set to be updated
---> Package mono-sharpcvslib.i586 0:0.35-9.fc11 set to be updated
--> Finished Dependency Resolution
Dependencies Resolved
================================================================================
Package Arch Version Repository
Size
================================================================================
Installing:
banshee i586 1.4.3-3.fc11 fedora 3.0 M
Installing for dependencies:
avahi-sharp i586 0.6.25-1.fc11 fedora 35 k
banshee-musicbrainz i586 1.4.3-3.fc11 fedora 40 k
boo i586 0.8.1.2865-6.fc11 fedora 810 k
gnome-sharp i586 2.24.0-3.fc11 fedora 327 k
gtk-sharp2 i586 2.12.7-4.fc11 fedora 819 k
log4net i586 1.2.10-5.fc11 fedora 96 k
mono-addins i586 0.4-6.20091702svn127062.1.fc11 fedora 484 k
mono-core i586 2.4-19.fc11 fedora 12 M
mono-data i586 2.4-19.fc11 fedora 1.5 M
mono-data-sqlite i586 2.4-19.fc11 fedora 158 k
mono-extras i586 2.4-19.fc11 fedora 1.5 M
mono-ndoc i586 1.3.1-4.fc11 fedora 304 k
mono-nunit22 i586 1:2.2.10-9.fc11 fedora 148 k
mono-sharpcvslib i586 0.35-9.fc11 fedora 502 k
mono-web i586 2.4-19.fc11 fedora 3.1 M
mono-winforms i586 2.4-19.fc11 fedora 3.0 M
mono-zeroconf i586 0.7.6-8.fc11 fedora 60 k
monodoc i586 2.4-19.fc11 fedora 7.3 M
nant i586 1:0.85-27.fc11 fedora 637 k
ndesk-dbus i586 0.6.1a-4.fc11 fedora 52 k
ndesk-dbus-glib i586 0.4.1-4.fc11 fedora 11 k
notify-sharp i586 0.4.0-0.6.20080912svn.fc11 fedora 14 k
podsleuth i586 0.6.3-2.fc11 fedora 48 k
taglib-sharp i586 2.0.3.2-2.fc11 fedora 188 k
Transaction Summary
================================================================================
Install 25 Package(s)
Update 0 Package(s)
Remove 0 Package(s)
Total download size: 36 M
Is this ok [y/N]: Exiting on user Command
Complete!
For Tomboy:
Loaded plugins: downloadonly, refresh-packagekit
Setting up Install Process
Resolving Dependencies
--> Running transaction check
---> Package tomboy.i586 0:0.14.1-2.fc11 set to be updated
--> Processing Dependency: mono(gdk-sharp) = 2.12.0.0 for package: tomboy
--> Processing Dependency: mono(Mono.Addins) = 0.4.0.0 for package: tomboy
--> Processing Dependency: mono(mscorlib) = 2.0.0.0 for package: tomboy
--> Processing Dependency: mono(Mono.Posix) = 2.0.0.0 for package: tomboy
--> Processing Dependency: mono(gtk-sharp) = 2.12.0.0 for package: tomboy
--> Processing Dependency: mono(Mono.Addins.Gui) = 0.4.0.0 for package: tomboy
--> Processing Dependency: mono(NDesk.DBus) = 1.0.0.0 for package: tomboy
--> Processing Dependency: mono(gnome-sharp) = 2.24.0.0 for package: tomboy
--> Processing Dependency: mono(pango-sharp) = 2.12.0.0 for package: tomboy
--> Processing Dependency: mono(gconf-sharp) = 2.24.0.0 for package: tomboy
--> Processing Dependency: mono(NDesk.DBus.GLib) = 1.0.0.0 for package: tomboy
--> Processing Dependency: mono(System.Xml) = 2.0.0.0 for package: tomboy
--> Processing Dependency: mono(Mono.Cairo) = 2.0.0.0 for package: tomboy
--> Processing Dependency: mono(gconf-sharp-peditors) = 2.24.0.0 for package: tomboy
--> Processing Dependency: mono(glib-sharp) = 2.12.0.0 for package: tomboy
--> Processing Dependency: mono(Mono.Addins.Setup) = 0.4.0.0 for package: tomboy
--> Processing Dependency: mono(System) = 2.0.0.0 for package: tomboy
--> Processing Dependency: mono(gnome-panel-sharp) = 2.24.0.0 for package: tomboy
--> Running transaction check
---> Package gnome-desktop-sharp.i586 0:2.26.0-1.fc11 set to be updated
---> Package gnome-sharp.i586 0:2.24.0-3.fc11 set to be updated
---> Package gtk-sharp2.i586 0:2.12.7-4.fc11 set to be updated
---> Package mono-addins.i586 0:0.4-6.20091702svn127062.1.fc11 set to be updated
---> Package mono-core.i586 0:2.4-19.fc11 set to be updated
--> Processing Dependency: mono(System.Web) = 2.0.0.0 for package: mono-core
--> Processing Dependency: mono(monodoc) = 1.0.0.0 for package: mono-core
--> Processing Dependency: mono(System.Configuration.Install) = 1.0.5000.0 for package: mono-core
---> Package ndesk-dbus.i586 0:0.6.1a-4.fc11 set to be updated
---> Package ndesk-dbus-glib.i586 0:0.4.1-4.fc11 set to be updated
--> Running transaction check
---> Package mono-extras.i586 0:2.4-19.fc11 set to be updated
--> Processing Dependency: mono(System.Windows.Forms) = 2.0.0.0 for package: mono-extras
--> Processing Dependency: mono(System.Transactions) = 2.0.0.0 for package: mono-extras
--> Processing Dependency: mono(System.Windows.Forms) = 1.0.5000.0 for package: mono-extras
---> Package mono-web.i586 0:2.4-19.fc11 set to be updated
--> Processing Dependency: mono(Mono.Data.Sqlite) = 2.0.0.0 for package: mono-web
---> Package monodoc.i586 0:2.4-19.fc11 set to be updated
--> Running transaction check
---> Package mono-data.i586 0:2.4-19.fc11 set to be updated
---> Package mono-data-sqlite.i586 0:2.4-19.fc11 set to be updated
---> Package mono-winforms.i586 0:2.4-19.fc11 set to be updated
--> Finished Dependency Resolution
Dependencies Resolved
================================================================================
Package Arch Version Repository
Size
================================================================================
Installing:
tomboy i586 0.14.1-2.fc11 fedora 4.6 M
Installing for dependencies:
gnome-desktop-sharp i586 2.26.0-1.fc11 fedora 211 k
gnome-sharp i586 2.24.0-3.fc11 fedora 327 k
gtk-sharp2 i586 2.12.7-4.fc11 fedora 819 k
mono-addins i586 0.4-6.20091702svn127062.1.fc11 fedora 484 k
mono-core i586 2.4-19.fc11 fedora 12 M
mono-data i586 2.4-19.fc11 fedora 1.5 M
mono-data-sqlite i586 2.4-19.fc11 fedora 158 k
mono-extras i586 2.4-19.fc11 fedora 1.5 M
mono-web i586 2.4-19.fc11 fedora 3.1 M
mono-winforms i586 2.4-19.fc11 fedora 3.0 M
monodoc i586 2.4-19.fc11 fedora 7.3 M
ndesk-dbus i586 0.6.1a-4.fc11 fedora 52 k
ndesk-dbus-glib i586 0.4.1-4.fc11 fedora 11 k
Transaction Summary
================================================================================
Install 14 Package(s)
Update 0 Package(s)
Remove 0 Package(s)
Total download size: 35 M
Is this ok [y/N]: Exiting on user Command
Complete!
Some months ago we saw that in OpenSUSE, Evolution depended on Mono. Whether this dependency was a mistake or not is almost irrelevant to the fact that Mono becomes less separable from some GTK applications and Winforms is an even bigger issue.█
06.06.09
Novell News Summary - Part I: OpenSUSE Graphics, Ark-ZYpp Win, and More Open Development
Summary: Artwork and screenshots for OpenSUSE, Ark picks ZYpp, OpenSUSE might revive Ted Haeger-type podcasts, and distribution development gets opened up a bit
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06.05.09
Fedora Leaves Mono Out, OpenSUSE Has Second Thoughts, and So Should Ubuntu
Summary: Mono loses ground as it gets increasingly removed and Ubuntu should follow suit (regarding Mono inclusion), argue some of its own users
OVER the past week, quite a lot has happened. Most importantly, Red Hat decided that "it's better without Mono" and Ubuntu users opposed Mono for the same reasons (bloat). OpenSUSE and Hubert (formerly of Novell) are both showing signs that Mono loses its luster (as if it ever had any) and to quote Sam Varghese:
Miguel, looks like there are traitors to the Mono cause within your own ranks. Or is it that, just for once, commonsense and logic has asserted itself at Novell and its associates?
DaemonFC from Boycott Novell adds:
“Linux Distro: “Can we distribute this?” Miguel De Icaza: “*shrug* Go ask Microsoft” [...] so Ubuntu goes whole hog and proceeds to crap up their OS with Mono everywhere [...] if it’s really “free software” you shouldn’t even really need to ask if you may distribute it.”
Neighborlee writes in response: “as long as MOST people don’t notice whats going on.. they can do it. It’s when people that notice make up the majority, that they can’t procede.. so that’s why it [has] been so important to try to get the word to average joe and cindy.”
Fred Williams writes in LinuxToday:
It would be nice if Ubuntu also took Mono off the live CD. They can leave Mono in the repos for people who want it.
To get rid of the trojan horse
sudo aptitude purge mono-common libmono0
“Definitely seconded!” says another person, who agrees with the above and adds:
I’ve been creating a custom Ubuntu live CD, and I was truly astonished how much space was wasted by this.
I believe it could even be as high as in the 5 to 10 percent range.
In other news, Novell is busy developing MonoDevelop. What is it doing now? It makes an installer for Windows. It’s nice to know that Novell spends its time developing Windows software that encourages development in .NET.
There are still some stability issues, and are several add-ins are still untested, but MD is starting to look great on Windows. GTK+ with the Vista theme looks really nice.
“Look really nice,” eh? So why not just use Windows? Whose platform is Novell promoting? Whose API? █
