Bonum Certa Men Certa

This Web Site is Not a Distro War or a Desktop Environments War

GNU/Linux Distributions are not the same as standards and Mono (i.e. patents)

I've just noticed a very prominent (as in omnipresent) comment in Digg's front page. It points to our Web site and says:

Release it [KDE 4] to the wild! I for one am eager to give it a try. I'm tired of Gnome's Mono shenanigans. http://boycottnovell.com/2007/11/05/gnome-mono-yelp/ Yuck. A gnome that has contracted Mono. That's a pleasant thought. Bring on KDE4!


Don't use this Web site to slag off GNOME or promote KDE. Please. It makes us look like irrational, clannish zealots. We don't advocate particular distros or software; we just warn about few bits of software that are a huge threat to GNU/Linux in the medium- and long-term. It's self defense, not 'banboyism'.

”Consider why neither KDE is truly a solution here, nor is obedient acceptance of Mono.“Let is be clarified yet again that I love GNOME, but I just don't like the fact that Mono is becoming a necessary evil in common deployments (packaging) of GNOME. As argued yesterday, with Silverlight making its increased presence in the World Wide Web, it's likely that all of us (KDE users too) will be virtually forced to use Mono, even just to enter and use Web sites. Therein exist our reasons to warn about Mono, which is totally controlled by Novell and Microsoft in many senses. Watch the most recent discussion (involving a long-time Mono developer) to realise what is going on. Consider why neither KDE is truly a solution here, nor is obedient acceptance of Mono. XAML must be shunned until it's properly supported (an impossibility perhaps).

GNOME has separate issues, which are less to do with Mono and more to do with OOXML. Some words that are coming from the ODF Fellowship board ought to have revealed what Jeff Waugh and Jody think about OOXML. Let's not go into the details yet, but I know someone who -- for that reason alone -- would not use GNOME. It's also unlikely that GNOME will do a U-turn after Miguel de Icaza's claim that OOXML is superb (in his own words). Let's wait and see Jeff's formal statement on this issue -- a statement that he will soon be making. We saw (and noted) his response to Richard Stallman.

To say more on Mono, as you may or may not know, we strive to describe not only the awful consequences of recent developments that include patent deals, but also cover Mono 'infestation' in popular distributions, among many other things. A friend of mine might respin Fedora because of that. A GNOME fork was apparently conceived and planned last year, but it never materialised.

Mono Microsoft brain



Whether you're keeping an eye on GNOME/Mono or not, the very long conversations with Jeff still makes it look quite ugly. I tried giving him the benefit of the doubt (and also a room in this site). Many people who begin to understand the situation openly say that they are waiting for KDE4 before they leave GNOME, but that's not the point. Meanwhile, Mark Shuttleworth just seems to ignore the issue and I'm not exactly his best of friends, especially after this new article that published. At the end, it all boils down to freedom. Microsoft fights Free software by diluting and hurting its meaning.

To end this clarification, which ended up being far longer than I had anticipated, here are some logical arguments which are inspired by words of wisdom that I once read somewhere:

Free software is about Freedom

GNU/Linux facilitates freedom

Freedom means loss of revenue to Microsoft shareholders

Thus, Microsoft does not like freedom

Microsoft actively fights freedom

Microsoft dislikes whatever enables this freedom, including GNU/Linux users/developers

Therefore, GNU/Linux users/developers have a legitimate reason to dislike Microsoft

Recent Techrights' Posts

Nat Friedman Had Left Microsoft GitHub Exactly One Week Before Matthew Garrett Sent His First SLAPP (Which Was an Empty Threat, He Was Abusing the Legal System of Another Continent to Terrorise Critics Who Had Just Unearthed Major Microsoft Scandals)
And it was likely talked about by his lawyers around the exact same time Nat Friedman was packing up
 
We're in 6/6 Now, Almost Halfway in 2025
2025 was probably the best year for us
South Americans Are Saying Goodbye to Microsoft
We're hardly even "Cherry-Picking" or conveniently singling out one South American nation
Abuse Inside the Polish Patent Office (UPRP) - Part III: Data Protection Failures, Just Like at the European Patent Office (EPO)
Just less than a decade ago we showed that the EPO had illegally shared staff data with third parties
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, June 05, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, June 05, 2025
Pushing Microsoft's Proprietary Trash/Trap as "Open" and "Linux" (Windows is 'Linux' Now?)
Maybe it's time to just stop saying "FOSS". The people who use that term are promoting Microsoft.
Slopwatch: Comparing Linux to Vermin, Attacking BSD With LLM Slop, and Helping Microsoft Demonise Linux/OpenBSD/SSH Over Weak User Passwords
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Links 05/06/2025: First US Spacewalk 60 Years Ago, GNU Octave 10.2.0 is Out
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Scandinavia Saying Goodbye to Microsoft
The Danes have had enough of Microsoft
GNU/Linux Measured at 6% in Bangladesh, According to statCounter
Windows isn't growing, it's going away
Gemini Links 05/06/2025: Loop Earplugs Review and ANS Forth
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Armenian Adoption of GNU/Linux
Russian influence in Armenian must be worrying to Microsoft
Abuse Inside the Polish Patent Office (UPRP) - Part II: Turning a Once-Respected Patent Office Into a Circus and Laughing Stock
It's not legal, but administrators who don't care about the law and don't fear the law would just go ahead and turn things to junk
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, June 04, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, June 04, 2025
Slopwatch: Mindless Slop Pieces, Fake Images and Text, Linux FUD on the Cheap
spewed out by Microsoft-controlled LLMs
Links 04/06/2025: Workers' Strikes, Sudan Exodus
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Links 04/06/2025: Linux Foundation PR Spam and Lee Jae-myung Wins Election
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Gemini Links 04/06/2025: Future Leaders of the World and Platforming Jordan Peterson
Links for the day
Links 04/06/2025: WSL Backfiring on Microsoft and "Disney, Microsoft Announce Massive Layoffs"
Links for the day
Our Case is a Very Easy Win, the SLAPPs From Microsofters Were a Grave Error, and Censoring Information Won't Work (It'll Only Ever Backfire)
Censoring is what people do when they lose the argument
Say the Truth, the Rest Will Follow
There's no guarantee that writing the truth will result in an audience (or readership), but over time - in the long run - people generally gravitate towards what they know or feel to be crude truth, not just what's comforting (albeit false or self-deluding, usually groupthink dictated from above)
How to Expose High-Level Corruption Without Getting in (Too Much) Trouble
Democracy depends on free press and freedom of the press depends on being able to safely publish (and keep available) material that bad people don't want to be known to anybody
In-Depth EPO Coverage at Techrights Turns Eleven
11 years is a very long time
Windows Measured Below 10% in Afghanistan, GNU/Linux Gaining a Lot
about 80% are Android (Linux) users, compared to only about 10% for Windows
Poland's Political Predicament and Social Control Media
Democracy and fake "tech" don't mix well; the latter tends to interfere with the former and that's why we get more "Putins" out there
EPO: Taking Away From the Staff to Give More to the Rich
The Central Staff Committee (CSC) wrote to EPO staff earlier this week
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, June 03, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, June 03, 2025
Abuse Inside the Polish Patent Office (UPRP) - Part I: It's a Lot Like the EPO
we can commence a series soon
Gemini Links 04/06/2025: Inescapable Questions and Quitting All "Oligarch Tech"
Links for the day