Bonum Certa Men Certa

Why Mono (and Moonlight) is Microsoft's Embrace

[Updated: Quote in post corrected (partly omitted/crossed out) because Banshee does not depend on Windows Forms.]

Microsoft Moonlight

Microsoft mono Embrace extend extinguish

Summary: Boycott Novell contributors explain why Mono and Moonlight are real risks

Microsoft is trying to embrace, extend, and extinguish GNU/Linux, largely with the help of Novell. Moonlight is already called "Microsoft Moonlight" in the Novell/Microsoft Web site and one reader wrote to say: "Here is one more proof than Microsoft is backing Moonlight. Go to http://silverlight.live.com/. If you connect from Linux O/S, it will offer you to install Silverlight, click install, you will be redirected to Moonlight page."



“Mono fans are meanwhile censoring opposers of Mono over in Ubuntu.”Mono fans are meanwhile censoring opposers of Mono over in Ubuntu. Sometimes it's Novell employees and some of those who are responsible (not Novell employees) are writing about proprietary computer games (yes, Windows) at the moment. Those very same people are also pushing hard to put Novell's own Banshee inside Ubuntu, by default, at the expense of other media players.

DaemonFC writes: "If Ubuntu uses Banshee by default, they'll have to ship Windows Forms/System Forms, so unless they have a Microsoft deal in the works, I don't know how they'd pull this off. Up til now Ubuntu only ships the ECMA standard parts of Mono. Windows Forms is not part of the standard, so only Novell has permission to distribute that. [...] Well, like I said, if they signed an agreement with Microsoft like Novell has, it would be legal, otherwise they're opening themselves up to be sued. Microsoft doesn't want to sue, they want to keep pointing at things like this and saying "Nyaaaah!" when companies are considering Linux."

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