Comments

• Needs Sunlight

  2009-02-03 19:20:04

  Hey, this is potentially good news. For GNOME, it is certainly good news.
  
  The only problem is that he will shortly turn up somewhere else.

• Simon

  2009-02-04 10:00:37

  The GNOME project should take this opportunity to distance itself from the positions championed by Jeff Waugh and apply for re-admission into the ranks of Open Source as a citizen in good standing.
  
  GNOME has a huge amount of deficit to make up for. Promoting Microsoft's technologies and pseudo-standards; polluting the Free Desktop with proprietary Microsoft technology; deliberately exposing the Free Desktop to patent litigation; colluding with Novell's circumvention of the GPL; abusive behaviour towards other projects, contributors and commentators; prevarication and outright lies to the wider community.
  
  Jeff Waugh was instrumental in much of GNOMEs illicit behaviour over the years. GNOME would be wise to use his long-overdue departure as a chance to follow a new direction.
  
  Preferably one that this time serves the interests of the Open Source and Free Software communities.

• Homer

  2009-02-04 12:45:19

  You _utter_ pricks. GNOME doesn't need to be re-admitted into the ranks of open-source good citizens; it's right there, in the centre. Unlike you lot.

• Jose_X

  2009-02-04 14:07:28

  >> You _utter_ pricks. GNOME doesn’t need to be re-admitted into the ranks of open-source good citizens; it’s right there, in the centre. Unlike you lot.
  
  GNOME has taken some steps back would be my opinion.
  
  They and everyone else installing mono should definitely reconsider that move.. if they care about the noncommercial components of the community as well as the smaller commercial players as well as the many unsuspecting developers and users that have possibly been deceived into thinking mono apps are safe from patent problems or are liabilities to Monopolysoft (instead of the assets they are).
  
  See for example: and http://www.linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=2009-01-20-015-35-NW-SW-0010 http://www.linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=2009-01-20-015-35-NW-SW-0013
  
  BTW, you aren't the same "[H]omer" that mans the irc channel on Freenode #boycottnovell, right?

• Roy Schestowitz

  2009-02-04 14:11:40

  “Homer” is not “[H]omer” or “Slated”.
  
  “Homer” seems likely to be an OpenSUSE guy.

• Dominic Matin

  2009-02-04 15:35:57

  It seems like it's getting worse, not better, for GNOME wrt Mono usage. There's a lot of current discussion about "GNOME-Do'ifying" Gtk+ and the rest of GNOME this past week.
  
  And then with the free advertising that GNOME has been getting thanks to Linus switching to it, things are not looking up.

• Jose_X

  2009-02-04 15:50:13

  >> It seems like it’s getting worse, not better
  
  I'm not ready at this time personally to go file and argue bug reports to remove mono entirely from distros or from major platforms (like GNOME), but this posting may still be useful in doing that [I want to wait for parts 2 and 3] http://boycottnovell.com/2009/02/04/the-api-trap-part-1/ or in at least raising extra awareness, which may lead to more people abandoning any kind of support for mono even if the apps and distros using it continue to exist.
  
  At some point, it would be useful to have a list of projects and distros that have risky dependencies so that bug reports can be filed (and extra awareness be raised).
  
  Also useful would be links to group that are fighting software patents since the above discussion (especially after parts 2 and 3) may help them sell their main points over how easy it is to develop patents that will have infested a lot of software out there, not for being major human breakthroughs in knowledge, but because of exploitation of weaknesses within the whole concept (and contradiction) of effectively allowing monopolies on thought to be enforced by governments.