10.17.09

“Mono Mania” Carries on and Evolution Includes Mono

Posted in GNOME, GNU/Linux, KDE, Microsoft, Mono, Novell, Patents, Ubuntu at 11:05 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Summary: As criticism of Novell’s Mono keeps rising, Mono entanglements seemingly continue to spread further (even in a KDE distribution)

Harvard Business School has this new paper about “Mixed Source”, which is Novell’s strategy [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]^*.

A token of this strategy would have to be Mono, which Jeremy Allison’s latest column has cast a shadow upon [1, 2]. The fallout continues:

It may be recalled that Allison quit Novell in disgust soon after the company signed a patent indemnification deal with Microsoft in November 2006.

[...]

“Miguel’s employer, Novell, has a patent agreement with Microsoft that exempts Mono users from Microsoft patent aggression, so long as you get Mono from Novell. Miguel takes pains to point this out,” Allison wrote.

As far as Mono goes, De Icaza has implemented parts of it which are not covered by the specifications submitted to the standards body ECMA by Microsoft; the parts submitted are said to be available on royalty-free terms and without fear of patent violations.

Novell carries on developing Banshee, which already makes use of non-ECMA parts of .NET and thus falls outside the awful MCP. Banshee is an example of Free software that only customers of Novell can use safely. And mind the cost associated with MonoTouch, for example. From the news:

Take, for instance, MonoTouch, Novell’s recently released tool for programming the iPhone with C# and .NET. It costs US$400 on top of the normal iPhone development requirements: the purchase of an iPhone and a Mac.

Who needs MonoTouch? MonoTouch is about making the iPhone and the Mac platforms for Microsoft development.

Meanwhile, Novell’s de Icaza promotes MonoSpace, which we wrote about in [1, 2, 3]. Watch this part.

# And I will focus on the schmoozing.

Why does de Icaza use this term? “Schmoozing” is an arcane term that Microsoft uses (only internally) in reference to AstroTurfing and persuasion [1, 2]. It’s exactly the type of thing Microsoft applied to de Icaza in order to “charm” him.

As one final note, as much as I am pleased with KDE 4.3 and as satisfied as I am with the beta of Kubuntu 9.10, earlier today in Message-ID <hbd5vg$1tf$1@news.albasani.net> (USENET) I read the following:

I just did a quick look in Synaptic, after a couple upgrades from Edubuntu.

Only thing using Mono is Evolution. Since it is not required, it can be uninstalled, along with the Mono libraries. Nothing else I see is using Mono, and all the rest is not installed by default.

Since Fedora already has a Winforms issue, I decided to investigate the above on my main machine. I was greeted with the following when preparing to install Evolution in KDE4.

Evolution is a groupware suite which integrates mail, calendar, address book, to-do list and memo tools.
Additional features include integration with Exchange and Groupwise servers, newsgroup client, LDAP support, web calendars and synchronization with Palm devices.
Evolution is a graphical application that is part of GNOME, and is distributed by Novell, Inc.
See http://www.novell.com/products/evolution/ for more information.
The following plugins belonging to the “base” set are included.
• calendar-file
• calendar-http
• calendar-weather
• itip-formatter
• plugin-manager
• python
• default-source
• addressbook-file
• startup-wizard
• mark-all-read
• groupwise-features
• groupwise-account-setup
• webdav-account-setup
• mail-account-disable
• publish-calendar
• caldav
• imap-features
• google-account-setup
• sa-junk-plugin
• bogo-junk-plugin
• exchange-operations
• mono

Mind that last package. Not only OpenSUSE has adopted or inherited such a dependency problem. █
____
^* Novell views itself neither as an “open source” company nor a “Free (libre) software” company. In reality, Novell is predominantly proprietary.

“I saw that internally inside Microsoft many times when I was told to stay away from supporting Mono in public. They reserve the right to sue”

–Robert Scoble, former Microsoft evangelist

Share this post: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.

Permalink Mail Send this to a friend

If you liked this post, consider subscribing to the RSS feed or join us now at the IRC channels.

Pages that cross-reference this one

2 Comments

The Mad Hatter said,

October 23, 2009 at 8:37 am

And everyone thought I was a nutbar when I started complaining about Evolution being almost impossible to remove from Gnome…

Roy Schestowitz Reply:
October 23rd, 2009 at 8:48 am
These denials go a long way back.

What Else is New

Guest Post: Open Source is Not Free Software

"If you look at human history, you can see lots of similar ideas, movements, intellectuals who are affected by the power of the ruling class like this."
Links 19/11/2019: HPC Focus and LibreOffice 6.4 Beta

Links for the day
Understanding Thierry Breton: “Rhodiagate” and the Vivendi Universal Affair

When the "Rhodia affair" became the "Breton affair"
Links 18/11/2019: Last Linux RC, OSMC Updated

Links for the day
What GitHub is to Open Source

Lots of prisoners inside GitHub
Openwashing Institutionalised NPEs (OIN) and Software Patents With Notorious Managers From the EPO

There’s a strong push for software patents in Europe (basically fake European Patents on abstract ideas) and IAM leads/participates in it with help from OIN, Grant Philpott (EPO) and — maybe soon — Breton (EU)
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, November 17, 2019

IRC logs for Sunday, November 17, 2019
Links 17/11/2019: Slax Beta and Arch Conf 2019 Report
Understanding Thierry Breton: The “Cost-Killer” Tries to Tame the National Debt

The oligarchic policy of Thierry Breton at Bercy
Reactions to Last Week's Thierry Breton Hearing

Nobody is particularly impressed by Thierry Breton except those who know little about him (and he contributes to this lack of knowledge by obstructing, omitting, and misleading)
The Open Invention Network Has Become a Guard Dog of (Some) Patent Trolls and It Misrepresents Us Under the Guise of 'Open Source'

The Open Invention Network (OIN), in collaboration with Fraunhöfer, is promoting software patents and all sorts of other nonsense as part of ‘open’ standards in a new paper sponsored by the EU and edited by the former EPO Chief Economist Nikolaus Thumm (not Battistelli's choice); this is another reminder of the fact that OIN misrepresents Free/Open Source software (FOSS) developers and their interests
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, November 16, 2019

IRC logs for Saturday, November 16, 2019
Unitary Patent is Dead Partly Because the EPO Demonstrated That EPC is Being Routinely Violated, Illegal Patents Granted

Some elements of Team UPC have given up, whereas others try to push the lie that Unitary Patent/Unified Patent Court (UPC) is not an EU thing and that therefore everything is fine
USPTO Rewards Microsoft for Corruption at ISO by Teaching People Proprietary OOXML and Promoting Its Use

The world's most important patent office promotes Microsoft lock-in, revealing not only corporate bias but also highlighting ways in which Microsoft crimes continue to pay off
No, Startpage is Not Dutch Anymore

Startpage is still clinging onto perceptions rather than truths; it means that Startpage isn't just betraying privacy but it's also dishonest and untrustworthy
Understanding Thierry Breton: Chirac's Entrepreneurial “Joker”

Minister in charge of the public treasury was not a career politician but an “entrepreneur” with a proven track-record as a financial wizard and “cost-killer”
Links 16/11/2019: New Debian Release, Wine staging 4.20

Links for the day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, November 15, 2019

IRC logs for Friday, November 15, 2019
Microsoft Doesn't Love Linux, It Just Buys Linux

Microsoft's takeover or abduction of its opposition's voice isn't an act of love but an act of occupation, a hostile colonisation that enables digital pillage and plunder
Koch's Reply to EPO Through ILO and Techrights' Interpretation of Koch v EPO Documents Help Show That ILO-AT is Played by EPO Management

Sending cases back and forth, without the complainant being involved, means that justice is in eternal ‘limbo’ and thus the abusive management of the European Patent Office (EPO) — first Team Battistelli and now Team Campinos — can get away with anything the bullies do (no judgment of substance being delivered)
EPO Running ILO's Tribunal (ILO-AT) 'in a Loop' to Perpetually Delay and Drain the EPO's Complainants (Aggrieved Staff) Out of Money

ILO’s Administrative Tribunal — a court for aggrieved EPO staff and other international organisations’ staff (usually known as ILO-AT for short) — is a major farce; when “time is money” and lawyers charge as much as 400 euros an hour the EPO’s management can exploit/misuse its cash reserves to also game justice and buy legal outcomes
ILO is Not Functioning and ILO-AT Helps the Abusive Management of the European Patent Office

It is becoming increasingly clear, based for example on Koch v EPO, that ILO-AT is where a lot of money will be spent on lawyers and rarely will that result in real justice (but it certainly helps EPO management pretend that staff has safeguards)
Links 16/11/2019: Wine 4.20, Picolibc 1.1

Links for the day
Understanding Thierry Breton: Moral Responsibility for “a Capitalism That Kills”?

"...France Télécom which had previously been defined by an ethos of public service, by egalitarian working conditions and by a sense of universal mission, had now been transformed into a "cash machine” whose sole purpose was to generate shareholder value on international financial markets."
FOSSPatents Conference is Against FOSS, Promoting the FOSS-Hostile Construct Known as RAND or FRAND

Do not be misled by the term Free/Open Source software (FOSS) in the name FOSSPatents and whatever relates to it (e.g. FOSSPatents Conference); it's not about FOSS but against FOSS, or pro-FRAND
Europe is Under Attack

European politicians or political candidates pretend to be 'candid'; but they're agents of Power, or put another way, they're there to make the rich and powerful class even richer and more powerful by passing new, ruinous laws in the name of 'the people' or 'for SMEs'
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, November 14, 2019

IRC logs for Thursday, November 14, 2019
Understanding Thierry Breton: Toxic Management Goes on Trial in France

"In each of these cases, the suicide served as a symbolic act of protest to denounce workplace conditions at France Télécom and attract public attention to its practices."
Thierry Breton's Video/Live Grilling is Over, But the Grilling Continues Online

Elite politicians aren't reluctant to give Thierry Breton the high seat (or throne); but everyone else realises that this resembles a corporate takeover more than anything