Correction: Our reader was wrong to suggest that Paul Culter works for Novell, even though Mono is a Novell product.

Old headline: "Mono and Novell Influence Increases in the GNOME Foundation"

Summary: Incorporation of Microsoft into GNU/Linux (especially GNOME) continues unabated

THE problems associated with Mono are real and those who ignore them tend to just mock the messenger or vainly declare opposition of Mono to be coming from "fake" (or "faux") members of the community. How conceited. As The Mad Hatter put it over the weekend:

I’ve been active in the Free Software community for four or five years now, including the Ubuntu sub-community. Like all such communities, there are certain people who seem to think that they have more rights than others. There are certain people who think that they should be leaders because of who they are, not what they do. There are certain people who think that they have the right to determine who is a ‘real’ member of the community, and who isn’t.

When it comes to Microsoft apologists (and MVPs like Miguel de Icaza), they pretend to be a friend while stabbing something or someone in the back. It's an old trick used even in religious debates.

One reader told us that a "Red Hat employee [is] stepping down, being replaced by a Novell employee [note correction]" at GNOME. "He's also a tomboy contributor," adds the reader. Here is the message in full:

When I decided to run for the foundation board in 2006, many of the old timers where not running again and there was the feeling that new people are needed on the board. The board work has been very educational and rewarding for me, but given other engagements and all the new, capable, people on the board this year, I think it's time for me to step down so I can focus on hacking.

The board has decided to appoint Paul Culter to take the seat. Paul has been doing wonders on the marketing team, GNOME Journal, and the sysadmin team. I'm sure this opportunity gives him more ways to contribute to GNOME even more.

Inatux has just published a review of Ubuntu 10.04 (test build) and wrote:

Lastly, we were sad to see F-Spot and Tomboy still being included, as with all their Mono dependencies.

There is actually more than that to Mono dependencies in Ubuntu, including new ones [1, 2]. With more Novell employees who are fond of Mono entering the GNOME Foundation, we are left somewhat concerned. Yesterday we found Jack Wallen promoting another Mono application, which is developed by a Canonical employee.

Docky is a little bit different. Docky is really nothing more than a front-end for Gnome Do (for more information on GNOME Do, check out my article “Don’t search, do – with GNOME Do“) that also serves as a really solid doc bar for the launching of applications in a very OS X like fashion.

Mono is the path to losing, not the path to winning. Microsoft wins if it becomes people's 'standard' for development. One of our readers is currently preparing a video to explain and illustrate this simple point. ⬆

"Every line of code that is written to our standards is a small victory; every line of code that is written to any other standard, is a small defeat."

--James Plamondon, Microsoft Technical Evangelist. From Exhibit 3096; Comes v. Microsoft litigation [PDF]