The other day, an item was published to criticise the role of Mono in the GNOME desktop. Just as a quick reminder, coming from the mouth of Microsoft employees:

"I saw that internally inside Microsoft many times when I was told to stay away from supporting Mono in public. They reserve the right to sue"

Have a look at the following comment from Olav Vitters, member of the GNOME Foundation, who often sends announcements on behalf of the GNOME project:

Note: Tomboy *is* part of GNOME. It is not 'association' or whatever you pretended the status to be. This so you could criticize it.

Watch the reply to this:

If Tomboy *is* part of GNOME, is then Mono too *part of GNOME*?

Looking back at yesterday's comment from Subsonica about Microsoft's plans (part of its latest SEC filing):

“...the absence of harmonized patent laws makes it more difficult to ensure consistent respect for patent rights. Throughout the world, we actively educate consumers about the benefits of licensing genuine products and obtaining indemnification benefits for intellectual property risks, and we educate lawmakers about the advantages of a business climate where intellectual property rights are protected. However, continued educational and enforcement efforts may fail to enhance revenue. Reductions in the legal protection for software intellectual property rights or additional compliance burdens could both adversely affect revenue. ”

Considering the fragment above, Microsoft by all means looks at patents as a competitive possibility and it wishes to contaminate international law with patentability of algorithms. Now, if Microsoft says it reserves the right to sue over Mono and Mono is becoming part of GNOME, what can one conclude?

“Is Microsoft injecting software patent poison using so-called 'proxies' who try to trivialise the issue?”For all it seems, Miguel de Icaza and his followers continue to put the Microsoft venom not only inside Linux but also inside some BSDs. In his blog, over the past week, Miguel even bragged about Mono running on the Apple iPhone. Similarly, he once pondered Google's Android. A Windows ISV tried to do the same thing to LiMo, which affects many Linux-based phones.

Is Microsoft injecting software patent poison using so-called 'proxies' who try to trivialise the issue? If so, how far and wide will it go? It's not just GNOME anymore and it's not just GNU/Linux, but everything leads back to the same culprit: Mono. Do remember that Mono is a Novell project and Novell calls Microsoft "a partner". ⬆

Image contributed by Beranger