06.26.09

Latest Lies and Denials from Mono Advocates, Microsoft

Posted in GNU/Linux, Microsoft, Mono, Novell, Ubuntu at 7:35 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Summary: Shackles of Mono justified using disinformation

Gnote 0.5.1 has just been released, as announced by Hubert Figuière in the GNOME mailing lists. Gnote is included by default in Fedora, but the anti-Linux Action Show, which as usual we haven’t any faith in, has had to promote the Microsoft-centric Mono and slam Fedora in public in order to get its message across. Red Hat has just responded:

As the maintainer of Gnote in Fedora, I think I should add a few clarifications and correct some factual inaccuracies in your podcast. In about 1:20 hrs, Bryan adds a comment that Gnote cannot import Tomboy notes. This is completely incorrect. Gnote and Tomboy use the same file format and Gnote in 0.5 version even has a plugin to import Tomboy notes on the first run. It would have been trivial to verify this for yourself.

Yet more lies from proponents of Mono? Specifically against Gnote again?

“According to a very recent poll, 73% of GNU/Linux users say “No” to Mono.”Either way, as we showed last week, proponents of Mono tend to be close to Microsoft and they are very vocal, which gives the false illusion that there is Mono consent. According to a very recent poll, 73% of GNU/Linux users say “No” to Mono.

Last week we saw a former Microsoft employee looking to replace the GIMP with the Mono-encumbered F-spot, at least in Ubuntu’s default build. A Boycott Novell regular, _Hicham_, packages Solang for Fedora in hopes of it serving as another replacement for F-Spot. As Sam Varghese correctly points out, nobody is able to verify that Mono is safe to use, not even Microsoft employees.

There was some inconclusive discussion about patents. While [Microsoft's] Hodge showed us a list of technologies which form the Microsoft Open Specification – there is a promise not to sue if these are used – he, understandably, could not offer any clues on the licensing of patents in Mono, for example.

Varghese is rightly concerned that Ubuntu leads itself deeper into Mono.

The next release of the popular Ubuntu GNU/Linux distribution may include a third Mono-dependent application by default, a spokesman for Canonical, the parent company for Ubuntu, told iTWire today.

[...]

According to information available elsewhere, there has also been a proposal for the Ubuntu live CD to remove the well-known image manipulation program, Gimp, with the reasoning apparently beign that F-Spot can handle what the Gimp does.

[...]

Red Hat’s community Linux distribution, Fedora, recently decided to jettison Mono altogether from its default install, and replace Tomboy with Gnote. There are fears in many sections of the FOSS community that Mono may prove to be a patent trap down the line as .NET is totally Microsoft technology.

While some claim that it is possible to obtain a royalty-free, reasonable and non-discriminatory licence for the use of Microsoft patents which may be part of Mono, in reality, it is extremely difficult to even find out how one can do so.

This article is also being referenced by The Inquirer, whose days might be numbered.

There may be a third Mono application in Ubuntu

[...]

But Ubuntu’s inclusion of Mono is not necessarily assured. Fedora, the free desktop version put out by Red Hat, recently dumped Mono from its default install and replace Tomboy with Gnote.

Fedora’s project leader has already acknowledged that legal reasons are among the causes for dropping Mono, which gets increasingly hard to avoid.

How to Securely Manage All Your Password

[...]

As a Mac user, I received two main recommendations. The first was a free, open-source program that security pros like called KeePass, which was built for Windows but is available for Mac, Linux and BSD if you also download the open-source software platform Mono.

The emphasis in red is ours. Remember what Gates said about C# and GNU/Linux. █

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3 Comments

Avuton Olrich said,

June 26, 2009 at 8:12 am

“As a Mac user, I received two main recommendations. The first was a free, open-source program that security pros like called KeePass, which was built for Windows but is available for Mac, Linux and BSD if you also download the open-source software platform Mono. ”

BTW- you quote something which, at least I see, as misinformation. I have keepass installed, have used it for many years and has never had a mono dependency (aamof, I don’t have mono installed right now). Am I misunderstanding the above?

rasta Reply:
June 26th, 2009 at 8:30 am
It’s about PRO edition, I guess:
http://keepass.info/download.html

Mikko Reply:
June 27th, 2009 at 7:44 am
the old version doesn’t use mono

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