05.12.09
Canonical Hires Noveller, Job Probably Won’t Include Mono
Summary: From Novell’s SUSE to Ubuntu and what it may all mean to Mono
A GNU/Linux developer whom Novell had laid off has just been hired by Canonical. Congratulations to Rodrigo Moya. It’s always better to have more developers where there is less Microsoft control (and no GNU/Linux patent tax). From Rodrigo’s post about it:
Being quite busy last week with my new job, I totally forgot to blog about it, so, in case someone is interested, I started last Monday working at Canonical.
As Stefano points out, there could potentially be some Mono here, but it is highly unlikely.
I don’t know anything about how the project will evolve, but I really doubt it will just sync files, as it would end up being a clone of existing services with no added value. Assuming I’m right in wondering it’s the project Rodrigo was talking about, his job position may be enlightening:
REQUIRED SKILLS AND EXPERIENCES
Extensive experience with the GNOME development platform, desktop environment and technologies such as GTK+, Cairo and X11
DESIDERABLE SKILLS
Python, Mono
So, why is Mono a desiderable skill? For two possible reasons, Stefano argues:
- The role is a generic GNOME developer, so Mono fits.
- For UbuntuOne, the client is in Python, so the server side is unknown (probably Python or C).
“But patching existing applications may and will be required,” he writes, “if you read my post, there’s a snippet which claims UbuntuOne will become a full blown platform, with APIs for third party applications to use it.”
Of course, Rodrigo might choose Python over Mono at any time. As one of our readers put it, “I believe Canonical is playing being smart at the moment [...] and by the way, they promote work [with] Python.”
One of our readers is slightly concerned about another man who has a worthy role in Ubuntu (upstream relations) because, according to him, he’s “advertising Mono in many ways.” For example:
I am the project owner of the simias and ifolder projects on Launchpad if anyone is interested in getting Debian/Ubuntu packaging going; drop me a line. Thanks to Zonker for pursuing this and thanks to Novell for doing the right thing. Now if only people could get it to build … heh.
Side information from our reader says that it is “so weird he [Jorge] advertised use of iFolder (Mono) instead of dropbox, and then Canonical released UbuntuOne, which is proprietary. [...] well, besides that, what I wanted to say: I don’t think Jorge is in the decision making process but he’s a Canonical employee and he’s close to Shuttleworth (he acted as a channel op many times when Shuttleworth was speaking on IRC).” █
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Needs Sunlight said,
May 12, 2009 at 6:38 am
Since when has a mono infection become ‘generic’ Gnome? Legal problems aside, it’s a technically poor imitation of Java.
If that is the case, then Shuttleworth may need a soft slap upside the head. On the one side, he’s doing great things with making a popular distro as well as fighting on behalf of small businesses (against software patents in the EU). But then he goes against both by letting mono in and then adding jo shields to the inner circle. WTF? The no-software patent work cannot be applauded enough. Let’s see some of that applied in-house, too.
Needs Sunlight said,
May 12, 2009 at 6:40 am
Since when has a mono infection become ‘generic’ Gnome? Legal problems aside, it’s a technically poor imitation of Java.
http://www.theopensourcerer.com/2009/04/23/how-to-remove-mono-from-ubuntu-904-jaunty-jackalope/
If that is the case, then Shuttleworth may need a soft slap upside the head. On the one side, he’s doing great things with making a popular distro as well as fighting on behalf of small businesses (against software patents in the EU). But then he goes against both by letting mono in and then adding jo shields to the inner circle. WTF? The no-software patent work cannot be applauded enough. Let’s see some of that applied in-house, too.
FreeBooteR said,
May 13, 2009 at 12:59 pm
I wish they would stop packaging mono with Ubuntu. I’ve gotten rid of everything mono on my system. Everyone should enable the Ubuntu statistics under software sources showing the total lack up mono on your systems after you get rid of it. Send a message.