09.21.09
Miguel de Icaza “is Basically a Traitor to the Free Software Community,” Says Richard Stallman
via Wikipedia
Summary: Strong words from the revered founder of the Free Software Foundation and more Microsoft/Mono news
Microsoft has lost its key pseudo-source person, Sam Ramji, and discussion about this carries on because a replacement will be needed. Some people honestly say that board member of Microsoft's CodePlex Foundation Miguel de Icaza is a likely candidate. Having already been criticised by the FSF before (de Icaza mocked them too), he should not be surprised to find this report from Software Freedom Day at Boston. The author quotes Richard Stallman as follows:
Miguel de Icaza “is basically a traitor to the Free Software community” This was in response to my question about the new Microsoft “Open Source” labs. He went on to say that Miguel’s involvement in the project doesn’t give much confidence as he is a Microsoft apologist. The project looks to be concerned with permitting “Open Source” programs to work on the Windows platform and thus divert valuable developer time away from free platforms such as Gnu/Linux.
Mono framework is not so much of a problem, but C# shouldn’t be used in core apps as legal problems would be hard to work around. Recommends uninstalling any apps using C#.
These words about Miguel de Icaza are harsher than anything we have seen from Stallman in the recent and distant past. The FSF has also formally explained why C# is a problem. Like many others, we have already explained why the CodePlex Foundation is yet another trap. Among our posts on the subject:
- OIN Receives Thanks from Many, CodePlex Foundation Receives Thumbs-Down from Many
- Why Microsoft’s CodePlex Foundation is a Promoter of Proprietary Software
- Microsoft Runs Away from the Press After Trying to Have GNU/Linux Sued by Proxy
- Novell, Microsoft, and the “Microsoft Hater” Daemonisation Label
The less informed commentators use an invalid comparison to a company which does not attack Free software, namely IBM. Here is another new article on the subject. It’s from Linux Magazine and the headline is: “Speculations About Microsoft’s Open Source CodePlex Foundation”
Newer CodePlex takers include a Gold Partner of Microsoft called Telerik, which has been working with Novell [1, 2, 3]. There is also Gaia in the news: “The Carbon Project today announced the beta release of Gaia 3.4 for Mono, a powerful free platform designed to support Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) users.”
“Mono is basically a Microsoft product made and maintained outside the Microsoft labs.”
–OmarIf that’s not enough, Novell also brings .NET to Apple’s product line at the moment, using MonoTouch [1, 2] which Novell marketing people are actively promoting, accompanied by partner blogs. There is also a bunch of new videos that promote MonoTouch, which gets demonstrated on a Mac PC [sic].
At FS Daily, Omar argues that “Mono is basically a Microsoft product made and maintained outside the Microsoft labs.” For peer confirmation he asks: “Am I right?”
lozz responds by saying: “You’re not wrong. Novell is already so close to Microsoft that many people automatically think of this trojan entity as M$-Novell.
“Mono developers are more dangerous to GNU/Linux than a court full of patent trolls.” █
Needs Sunlight said,
September 22, 2009 at 3:25 am
RMS puts it more mildly and politely than de Icaza’s actions warrant. He also puts it into too narrow a scope.
Free and Open Source Software is essential to maintain US national sovereignty. And as we see from insightful and eloquent explanations from Peru and many, many other countries, it is essential for national sovereignty everywhere. So de Icaza’s actions are those of a traitor to a much larger group than the Free Software community. He is inciting people in many countries to undermine and work against their own people and their own government.
Free and Open Source Software, along with Open Standards, is essential for global trade. Markets will stagnate or balkanize without them.
So, though RMS is putting the issue mildly and only in a narrow scope, the problem presented by de Icaza and the other wannabee-nazgûl is larger and more severe than that.