Summary: Memorable and foresighted words from one of the top Linux developers

A FEW MONTHS ago Microsoft confirmed Alan's statements, which can be found in this interview with Slashdot that contains a lot more:

What are your feelings on Microsoft's .NET and any initiatives to make the technology work on Linux?

Alan [Cox]: Microsoft has publically stated that it has patents on critical parts of .NET and will enforce them. If you think that .NET is a good idea, or cloning .NET is a good idea, remember you won't have a US market unless they find you amusing enough to allow to live on. And if you think Microsoft can be trusted on this look at their recent activities against Samba.

The system itself is mildly interesting as a technology. Its yet another virtual machine, roughly equivalent to picojava in capabilities. It has an interesting way to self generate IDL, but one which their own papers say cannot represent all programming languages.

The more dangerous parts of all this are not so much .NET but chunks of the model that not only the .NET product and the Java standards rely on. Things like xmlrpc, soap and the stuff on top of them are designed to "interwork through firewalls". A better phrase would be "go through the firewall like a knife through butter in a way that prevents the companies involved monitoring the activity".

In summary, Microsoft's .NET is a legal threat, it is just an imitation of Java, and it is a security issue. ⬆

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