06.16.10
Mono Cleanup
Summary: Ubuntu GNU/Linux follows the footsteps of projects like Fedora and sweeps Novell’s Mono aside
BY “Mono cleanup” we are not referring to the latest refinements from Microsoft MVP de Icaza and his team. And actually, there is not much news from Mono anymore, with the exception of the MeeGo issue [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]; it has been months since we last heard anything about Moonlight.
“Have these pro-Microsoft projects been neglected?”Is it possible that amid negotiations of a sale Novell just doesn’t put much effort into .NET? Have these pro-Microsoft projects been neglected? We do hope so. It will also be interesting to see what happens to UNIX now that SCO is in the gutter [1, 2, 3] and there is legal certainty that Novell owns UNIX.
Over the weekend Slashdot gave room to the story about Shotwell [1, 2, 3]. Then, many blogs started reciting old news about the removal of F-Spot from Ubuntu (examples of new coverage in here). To cite more examples we have just found:
i. Track the Desktop and UNE in Maverick
ii. gThumb Brings Better Photo Browsing and Importing to Linux (yes, gThumb is a possibility as well [1, 2])
Ubuntu’s next version will switch out the F-Spot photo manager for Shotwell, a young but promising tool. Want a better tool than either of them? Try gThumb, which does well at importing, viewing, organizing, and lightly editing your shots.
[...]
gThumb is a free download for Linux systems running GNOME desktops, and is available in most major Linux repositories. Ubuntu users, in fact, can install gThumb with one click from the app’s home page.
iii. Ubuntu one step closer to dropping Mono
Update: This has also been detailed by Rick Spencer, engineering manager for the Ubuntu desktop team.
The decision will please the growing anti-Mono crowd which is keen to rid Ubuntu of it. Mono is an open source implementation of Microsoft’s .Net platform founded by Novell’s Miguel De Icaza. Mono is used to run applications such as F-Spot and Tomboy notes on Ubuntu but there is a distinct movement towards removing Mono-based applications from Ubuntu releases, particularly UNR in which space is at a premium.
The decision will also please the users that complain F-Spot is unstable and unreliable as an image organiser. F-Spot has been the default image organiser in Ubuntu since the Edgy Eft (6.10) in October 2006.
[...]
With F-Spot being shown the door Tomboy could be next. Tomboy is the last remaining Mono-based app included in Ubuntu by default and could well be replaced with something like GNote to remove the last signs of Mono-dependency.
Actually, there is gbrainy too [1, 2, 3, 4], but it’s just a little game that would not justify leaving the whole bloat of Mono on the Ubuntu CD (space constraints and possibly performance).
The CTO of Canonical is aware that Mono has issues associated with it. █
