Summary: Novell is fitting a flavour of Microsoft onto crippleware from Apple

NOVELL'S Mono, as we've pointed out before, is a tool for promoting Microsoft as a standard among developers (who largely distrust Microsoft for good reasons). Mono is mentioned about 15 minutes into the latest Linux Basement episode and it is also mentioned in this new article for being "Microsoft-Compatible". That's exactly what's good for Microsoft and is also actively enforced using a community promise that is a threat to anyone who thinks about deviating from the Microsoft way of doing things.

Apple's latest Freedom-hostile product (more on that later) got the attention of the Mono team. Microsoft MVP Miguel de Icaza rallies his colleagues to bring .NET to this product.

Another Mono-race, in 24 hours we are aiming to:

* Support the iPad SDK from Apple (freshly baked and published). * Add MonoDevelop support for it.

Eventually they made it, but it's no triumph. It's about spreading .NET, not GNU/Linux. It is also about assisting a product that harms Freedom.

The impact of MonoTouch on one's personal goal is something which we wrote about in:

• CodePlex Foundation Loves Software Patents and What MonoTouch Means to Microsoft
• More Thoughts About the Microsoft CodePlex Foundation: New Links
• Novell, Microsoft, and the “Microsoft Hater” Daemonisation Label
• Novell Helps Microsoft Zune and CodePlex Foundation Helps Novell
• “Mono Mania” Carries on and Evolution Includes Mono
• Novell VP Brushes Off Microsoft's Attacks on GNU/Linux, Promotes .NET

Mono used to be marketed as something that's beneficial to GNU/Linux. But now that Microsoft is funding Novell, priorities are different. ⬆