Summary: .NET leaves Mono vulnerable to more allegations of plagiarism and the patent issues stay standing

WHEN Microsoft first announced a "shared source" move in relation to .NET, SJVN argued that it was a trap for Mono that's akin to the SCO case. By showing its cards, Microsoft opens the door to accusations of copyright violation and for PR purposes it is said to be "opening up" another part of .NET, leaving its terrible "Community Promise" in tact.

Tux Radar explains this incorrectly because only some parts of ECMA are covered by the Community Promise, not the whole of .NET. In fact, OpenSUSE 11.2 breaks the Community Promise.

Back in July, Microsoft announced it was making .NET available under its Community Promise, which in theory allowed free software developers to use the technology without fear of patent lawsuits.

This is not correct. There are serious omissions here.

In eWeek Europe, Novell's latest promotion of Microsoft Visual Studio [1, 2, 3, 4] receives a mention alongside the following part:

The announcement came right after Microsoft and Novell celebrated the third anniversary of their partnership, designed to push the integration of SuSE Linux and Windows Server in the data centre, along with more controversial protection against patents which Microsoft claims Linux infringes.

Yes, Novell not only substantiates Microsoft's empty allegations; by grooming and putting Mono inside GNU/Linux distributions Novell makes Microsoft's allegations self fulfilling. ⬆