02.05.12
Posted in GNU/Linux, GPL, Microsoft, Mono, Oracle, Patents at 10:27 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Building an “open” stack with proprietary Microsoft?
Summary: Another look at the OpenStack situation, why Microsoft should not be allowed to enter, and more about patent and copyright complications
SOME days ago we wrote about OpenStack's situation when it comes to Microsoft. Later we showed what Microsoft boosters were doing to spin it as good news. Well, according to this new article:
OpenStack is supposed to be a vendor agnostic open community for building an open source cloud stack. And it is, unless you don’t pull your own weight- or if you’re Microsoft.
I know there is plenty of vitriol in the open source world towards Microsoft and certainly some of that has now surfaced in the OpenStack community.
OpenStack is now removing the Hyper-V capabilities from its stack, after Microsoft didn’t maintain the code. That happens in projects all the time, just think about the Linux kernel where Microsoft has had similar challenges and hey for that matter so has Google.
The hostility towards Microsoft has a lot to do with this monopolist’s continued attacks on Open Source projects. We need not whitewash Microsoft here or claim the above to be an irrational move of irrational hatred. Never mind the fact that Hyper-V is proprietary and not open. Microsoft continues to attack Linux with all sorts of proxies like SCO as well as patent trolls. There are those who wish to just abolish it all, especially patents. Realising the idiocy of many patents, there are some who speak about the harms of patents as a whole, not just software patents. To quote:
“Is this Patent full of crap?”
[...]
The ideas are those of patent lawyer Andrew Schulman, but the story is full of insight on a patent lawyer’s thinking and offers real clues into why the patent system is such a mess–complexity compounded, full of precedents that ordinary humans will find puzzling at best.
Earlier we wrote about many patents becoming just junk. Even Oracle seems to be moving further away from patents and is now trying to use copyrights against Android. Quoting Groklaw:
Today is the due date for Dr. Cockburn’s third attempt at a damages report on behalf of Oracle, and just to make sure Oracle knows what needs to be submitted, Judge Alsup has issue a reminder order. (709 [PDF; Text]) The judge wants to see not only the report but also all of the related reports and studies that support it.
Let’s remember that Microsoft has put code with its copyrights inside Linux and the same goes for Mono. They try to make those things more adaptable to Microsoft’s proprietary software. In the case of Mono, there is lawsuit risk too. Anything with Microsoft in it tends to be tainted. Just see what happened with FAT. █
Permalink
Send this to a friend
01.18.12
Posted in Microsoft, Mono, Novell at 1:20 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: Xamarin and Mono lack presence in the press and lack any notable activity too
A
few years back we wrote a great deal about Mono. But Mono has hardly been visible since Attachmate trashed it and according to this new article:
Since Novell was acquired by Attachmate last year, the Mono project is being backed by a new company called Xamarin, which was founded by Mono founder Miquel de Icaza, who was previously working at Novell. So the Mono project is alive and well, and it is not too late to add it to IBM i. (It has been rumored that IBM ported Mono to run inside PASE, the AIX runtime environment embedded in IBM i operating system. That idea was bottled up and kept in a darkroom never to see the light of day.)
Xamarin is almost nowhere to be seen. Here is a quick roundup of what happened in recent months:
# July – SUSE signs an agreement with Xamarin giving a perpetual license to all Mono related Intellectual property and stewardship of the open source mono project. Xamarin takes over support for existing Enterprise Mono customers and starts selling Mono-based products, including the popular MonoTouch for iOS and Mono for Android.
# Aug – Mono 2.10.3, Xamarin’s first Mono release, comes out with support for Mac OSX Lion, some WCF improvements and GC fixes.
# Oct – Microsoft takes a dip into Mono by building Kinectimals for iOS
# Nov – Sony announces Play Station Suite built on top of Mono. Phalanger 3.0 gets released with support for Mono instead of needing a C++/CLI compiler
# Dec – CXXI brings advanced C++ interoperability to Mono
That is not much for one to have achieved in half a year. We suppose Mono will just die out on its own. █
Permalink
Send this to a friend
11.07.11
Posted in Mono, Novell at 3:41 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: Reflection Suite reflects on Attachmate commitment only to itself
NOW that Mono is being dropped from Ubuntu (after Attachmate too dumped it) we are somewhat gratified to see the boycott of Novell succeeding.
Attachmate itself is not totally without products. It just doesn’t have many of them and those which it has make headlines for all the wrong reasons:
The case centres around Defence’s use of five pieces of Attachmate software in the “Extra!” product family of emulation software. Attachmate sold Defence 8000 licences for a package of software, including Extra! Personal Client 6.5, Extra! for Windows 5.20 and Extra! TCP Bundle Version, as well as Reflection for HP version 4.2, enterprise Access Object Software and KEA! 420.
In the licensing agreement, Defence agreed to use each copy on one computer at a time, transfer software between computers no more than once every 30 days and to not copy the software.
Attachmate had independent auditors from KPMG prepare a report in November 2009, which revealed that Defence was using tens of thousands of copies of the software that it had no licences for.
Now, watch this new press release from Attachmate. This is very rare as the company seems to be low profile of of very low impact. It does not spend time promoting Novell products, which says a lot really. “I Remember IRMA: Reflections on Terminal Emulation Through the Ages,” writes David Strom, who explains that:
The memories were trigged by a press release from Attachmate, which is now probably the largest software vendor of things that you don’t really care to try or buy, including probably the leading commercial vendor of Reflection, a terminal emulator. For those of you that are still reading, this is a product that allows you to connect to a command-line console (such as Terminal in Mac OS or Windows HyperTerminal).
This was hardly mentioned in the press, except for few examples. Attachmate does almost nothing for Novell’s portfolio. █
Permalink
Send this to a friend
11.05.11
Posted in Mono, Site News at 9:44 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: Big news about Mono now reaffirmed
LAST night I found out that Mono would be removed from Ubuntu (that’s me last night at around that same time). Sebastian found this out live and a Canonical employee confirmed this to me later. Now there are articles about it.
This marks a victory of sorts to a push we’ve put a lot of effort into, along with Boycott Novell. A lot of personal compromise was involved as I was on the receiving end of persistent bullying and smears. Thanks to all those who help share information about the problems with Mono. GNU/Linux is a lot safer (and better) now. █
Permalink
Send this to a friend
11.04.11
Posted in GNU/Linux, Mono, Ubuntu at 4:24 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: Microsoft dependency is being removed from Ubuntu GNU/Linux, based on UDS
Based on a video which is airing right night, Sebastian tells us (in IRC) that “Mono won’t be in the default install of 12.04 [but] still in repos [...] and they will switch back to Rhythmbox as well, so bye bye Mono [...] it was in the UDS video from Orlando at the moment [...] and they were just talking about it in the channel for that as well [...] I think it’s to save space really on the CD [...] and since Rythombox is good enough again now [...] they said it a little while ago in the UDS wrap up [..] and they said how they will get a certain amount of space back [...] and in the UDS channel someone was saying how that means: Tomboy won’t be there as well anymore.” █
Permalink
Send this to a friend
Posted in GNU/Linux, Mono, Ubuntu at 4:24 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Almost no Mono applications (or none) in Ubuntu 12.04?
Source: “Mono, the Trojan” (reused with permission)
Summary: The long term support release of Ubuntu (next release) may come with almost no Mono applications (or none) and there is discussion about getting rid of Mono altogether
Banshee coverage at Phoronix was mentioned here the other day, but we now see some reports that almost contradict it. “Apparently,” tells us Viper550, “Ubuntu devs are proposing a switch back to Rhythmbox”
Ryan insists that he “said that last night, EST… (to the tune of that Get a Mac ad) Problems? Too darned many. Patches? Not enough. Banshee has issues, it’s so glitchy, they’re leaving it, for Rhythmbox… ”
Viper550 explains the reasons as: “Banshee = not GTK3, glitchy on ARM, removing it could allow the removal of Mono from the main repository, etc.”
“I doubt Mono will be removed from the repository,” Ryan adds, “getting it removed from the supported system and into Universe would be good though… they wasted time and effort coding all their Ubuntu One crap in C# for a dead end (Mono), while complaining Rhythmbox isn’t up to their standards, instead of improving Rhythmbox”
“[T]hey said it could also save some space on the ISOs,” replies Viper550, but Ryan insists that “Red Hat has ported Rhythmbox to GTK+ 3 and gotten it in good shape, they’re thinking about doubling back and using it in Ubuntu again which means rewriting all their Ubuntu One crap that they spent man hours writing for Banshee… Ubuntu just takes leftovers… once some other outfit gets something working, Ubuntu swipes it and takes credit for installing it in the default system, which they call “integration work”…”
Having searching for some references on this matter, we got this (Viper550 says it “was discussed at UDS”).
- Rhythmbox / Banshee :
This subject was a bit of surprise for me, I didn’t expect such discussion will happen. However, the 2 applications have problems :
- Banshee : Problem on ARM (doesn’t work), no GTK3 support, and removing Banshee will remove Mono from the CD (good for the space) and probably from main (which make Security team happy, not having to maintain Mono stack for 5 years)
- RB : U1 store need to be updated, Music lense needs to be updated, it needs a release from upstream.
A quick vote on usage of both applications in the room makes approximately a 50 / 50 result (maybe a bit more for RB).
Conclusion, RB will probably be back on the CD, if no problem is raised by the other teams not present during the session. The decision was not easy, but IMO it makes sense in the context of an LTS. And, well, Banshee will still be available in the archive, will at least the same level of integration than in 11.10.
So “basically,” explains Viper550, “cliffsnotes version: Banshee may be dropped because its not a native GTK 3 application, doesn’t work well on ARM, and dropping that and Mono could save some disk space (which make Security team happy, not having to maintain Mono stack for 5 years)”
Other sites appear to have already reported about this too, so we’ll quote:
Rhythmbox Might Replace Banshee In Ubuntu 12.04 Precise Pangolin, More News
[...]
As for the second session, most people who have attended the default applications session today at UDS-P have agreed to replace Banshee with Rhythmbox by default. However, decision is not final as there are a few things that need to be checked first (like Unity Music Lens integration, etc.).
This is great news and a step in the right direction. █
Permalink
Send this to a friend
11.02.11
Posted in Mono, Ubuntu at 6:11 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: Microsoft is drilling a legal loophole into Ubuntu GNU/Linux and apathy still serves Microsoft’s plan
ONE important bug that Canonical no longer tries to squash is the Mono bug. It adds a liability which everyone is well aware of, including the company's outgoing CTO (Canonical reorganised following some important departures at the top)..
The host of TechBytes, Tim, is usually very moderate, but he too is still concerned about Mono inside Ubuntu. The other day he wrote in Diaspora: “I’ve much love for Ubuntu and whilst it’s not my desktop choice now, it’s certainly the one I will recommend to others. The community is great, the distro is great.
“It does though always sadden me when we see Canonical’s insistence to stick with Banshee and ergo Mono. Why?
“Of course removing Mono is not the problem, I just merely wish they would get over this particular dependency that I cannot see has any benefits (even if you don’t buy into a patent trap scenario)”
One of our contributors has already added a wiki page about removing Mono from the latest Ubuntu and Phoronix writes about Mono and Banshee in a new article which Tim called “a rather interesting read.”
Later he wrote: “I commented on TechBytes some time ago about its sluggishness and it’s interesting to see that its still being commented on now. Patent trap or not, we have already seen how aggressively Microsoft is hitting Android with “licenses” and I’d say it would be wise to minimize as much risk as possible and remove Mono completely, for me and what I’ve seen of it, it offers no advantages that even come close to risking another avenue of attack for Microsoft on non-MS products.”
Exactly. And Phoronix ignores the main problem people are having with Mono and Banshee which Microsoft says it reserves the right to sue over. It’s not just about performance and technical merit (or lack thereof). We increasingly hear about Mono in the context of Wine, too. Here is the article in question. It says:
Concerns over this Mono and GTK#-using application were raised since Banshee has had some problems on ARM (the application freezing with a white screen) and Mono issues on ARM in general.
But why not mention the other issues? We have a wiki page dedicated to these. █
Permalink
Send this to a friend
10.09.11
Posted in Microsoft, Mono at 11:20 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: Monsieur de Icaza and his followers help ensure that .NET does not go away just yet
IN SOME ways, Microsoft is abandoning .NET, which not only pisses off many developers but also causes many other problems.
It was only months ago that Attachmate threw Mono out to the street. There is not much going on at Attachmate (the former vice president at Attachmate Corporation is seen moving now) and after it had laid off Mono developers it hardly was willing to give some so-called 'IP' (eventually it did), which does not mean that it’s okay because Microsoft is the party to approach. The remnants of the Mono team were afloat in Xamarin, which hardly does anything based on the news, with the following exception:
The MonoDevelop team has released version 2.8 of its open source IDE (integrated development environment) for programming in C# and other .NET languages. Other than changes to the source code editor and new functions for project management, MonoDevelop 2.8 mainly provides changes for Mac developers.
Mac, eh? What about GNU/Linux? Well, Mono was never about free platforms, it was about Microsoft .NET. █
Permalink
Send this to a friend
« Previous entries Next Page » Next Page »
