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. █
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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.” █
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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. █
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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. █
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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. █
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09.29.11
Posted in Microsoft, Mono, Novell at 12:29 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: In light of more FUD from Miguel de Icaza, a reminder of who or what he is serving and why we oughtn’t pay attention to him
SEVERAL people have asked us to cover the unsurprising story of a Microsoft MVP praising Microsoft and trashing Linux. The only noteworthy gem is that this Microsoft MVP is called Miguel de Icaza, the man who technically leads a startup striving to spread .NET. He also works (or worked) for a Microsoft foundation that facilitates self-serving intrusion into FOSS. We’ll expand a bit just in case someone still does not know Miguel de Icaza, whom Microsoft conveniently characterises as opposition because he is controlled opposition.
The short story is, Miguel is being Miguel again. “Conveniently,” says one of our regulars in IRC, “he skips the OEM monopoly [..] and shilling for vista 8″
Miguel’s current fascination with Vista 8 can be seen in this post, but we must remember that Miguel also promoted .NET and Silverlight for Linux (even rewriting and writing applications for Linux in Moonlight) while Microsoft pretty much dumped both. This man is not credible and he is fuelling Linux FUD that quotes him as “Gnome creator”.
“Like everything in Microsoft’s culture, lying is OK as long as it’s useful to Microsoft.”This should not surprise anyone as we have seen him in newsgroups too playing along with Microsoft trolls and throwing FUD at Linux. One has to gasp at the sight of this person who openly bashes the Linux desktop, a part of which people sometimes wrongly attribute to him (mostly in the Microsoft camp, of which he is a loyal part).
It ought to be mentioned that the latest FUD from Miguel was generated in collaboration with Microsoft’s buddy Tim Anderson, whom Microsoft gives presents. It is helps validate what we have been saying for years about Miguel and other Microsoft lust which he takes pride in.
He will not be insulted by association with Microsoft. He loves Microsoft, he tried getting a job there as far back as 1998.
Like everything in Microsoft’s culture, lying is OK as long as it’s useful to Microsoft. The company even lied to the government recently — a serious breach of trust that does get scrutiny from the press but probably not enough scrutiny.
“Ask Miguel about Microsoft’s abuses and see him slinking away.”The bottom line is, Miguel will say the darnest things, he will get things wrong (as he did before), and we really must not take what he says seriously anymore. If FOSS developers took his advice, they would be swapping OOXML files, building GNOME 3 using Moonlight (XAML), and investing their effort in Xamarin, which fails to even be mentioned by the press after staff left, the software turned proprietary, the new CEO was appointed after an early Microsoft career, and the CTO is reduced to some kind of anti-Linux mouthpiece.
Miguel has been groomed by Microsoft boosters (some pretend to be objective journalists) for a good reason. He gives credibility to their FUD because they can try to label him “Gnome founder” and then magically speak ‘on behalf’ of the opposition. The grooming of the “de Icaza” brand is mostly done by Microsoft sites, as a news survey can easily help show (we performance several such surveys about Mono before). The goal is to weaken FOSS elements such as the FSF and give power to Microsoft boosters and apologists mostly through exposure and PR tactics. Another objective to be achieved is the marginalisation of elements in the community which are critical of Microsoft (and there is lots to be critical of, e.g. patent extortion and boot attack). The same strategy is used in politics. It is partisan and at times very malicious.
Ask Miguel about Microsoft’s abuses and see him slinking away. █
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09.25.11
Posted in Microsoft, Mono, Novell, OpenSUSE at 10:41 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: Banshee and Pinta rear their head again; no considerable changes in OpenSUSE
THE WORLD of Novell is a misty mixture of Microsoft and SUSE, .NET and Linux, even Microsoft tax on Free/libre software. The patent trap which is Banshee has a rather belated (and bloated) release (Banshee is a Novell project) and Pinta, a project conceived by a Novell developer, still helps spread Mono. After reports that it had died there was a call for volunteers to help save it and the program is said to have been resurrected. So there is still work to be done making Mono and Xamarin go away (back where they came from, Microsoft culture).
While things remain quiet in OpenSUSE (with few exceptions) and there are delays reported (as covered here twice before), it seems like the project opened up a bit to women:
At the openSUSE conference last week, Lydia Pintscher from the KDE Community Working Group led a BoF on “women in openSUSE”. This is what we (Stella, Bruno, Lydia, Pascal, Susanne, Greg) worked out…
This seems more like PR. OpenSUSE is most predominantly a male group and it is run almost exclusively by people who are employed by SUSE/Attachmate (formerly Novell) and partly funded by Microsoft. The community was not even part of the decision to bond with Microsoft. █
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09.17.11
Posted in Microsoft, Mono, Novell at 5:32 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: What Mono proponents are other closet Windows/.NET fans are up tp
A few hours ago Ryan asked, “did you see omgubuntu give Windows 8 a glowing review?”
He also showed Mono promotion (in the form of Banshee news) which ignores the known risks and development impediments. He claims that “they want to make a GTK 3-Sharp and a Gstreamer-Sharp,” later adding that “Rhythmbox isn’t exactly getting a lot of love lately.”
“I think it’s only on life support because Fedora doesn’t want to use Banshee,” he added. When will Canonical get off the Mono dependency? It’s the gateway drug to Microsoft.
We ought to mention that one of the Mono boosters who attacked this site for a long time (trolling the IRC channel, smearing it from afar, etc.) turned out to have been a Microsoft intern. He pretended to be a Ubuntu member. Funny how many Mono people are close to Microsoft but still in disguise, eh? █
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