04.07.10
Novell Dominates Almost a Third of GNOME Foundation Board, Including the Director
Summary: Despite Microsoft’s frantic push for C# (through Novell staff), the language is stagnating, but Novell increases its influence in GNOME
WITH the addition of Cutler [1, 2, 3], it is now made official that Novell has 2 out of 7 seats, including that of the GNOME Foundation Director.
* Brian Cameron (Oracle)
* Jorge Castro (Canonical)
* Paul Cutler (Novell)
* Diego Escalante Urrelo (Igalia – Internship)
* Germán Póo-Caamaño (No affiliation)
* Srinivasa Ragavan (Intel)
* Vincent Untz (Novell)
Some of the above are proponents of Mono, which Microsoft guards like a hawk as C# fails to gain traction and Microsoft looks for Free software developers to change things in its favour.
According to TIOBE’s data, since August 2001 it took Microsoft 8 years to get their language to hit 6.258% usage (and it dropped significantly, they currently sit at 4.435%). Compare this with Java which has waned in popularity. Java is still at 18.051% usage and it’s highest was 26.492% usage on June 2001.
What does this tell you?
1) C is gaining popularity again despite lacking garbage collection and LINQ.
2) Java is still more popular than C#
3) At the rate Microsoft is going with C#, it should be at 12% in another 8 years (rough estimate).
That’s how bad C# is doing. Developers reject it, but Mono is trying to impose it upon more developers. Microsoft’s MVP Miguel de Icaza is even urging GNOME developers to build applications using Moonlight (mimicking another Microsoft lock-in that failed to gain ground).
As one of our readers pointed out, the Mono proponents are currently just resorting to harassment of critics. We gave some examples yesterday.
Regular readers to this blog will hopefully have noticed that whenever Mono is mentioned we often get an aggressive response. Now with normal topics a response is usually based on a obvious love/passion for the subject at hand, yet with Mono the response is often rude, sometimes vulgar but more often than not (in my experience) combative.
Some of the attacks from Mono proponents are too vulgar for this Web site to quote. █
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The Mad Hatter said,
April 7, 2010 at 10:27 pm
Note that Bradon made a tiny mistake in his calculations on where C# penetration will be in eight years, it should have been 2.612%, assuming that the current trend continues
We see the same thing with Mono, that we are seeing with Mobile Phones, Web Browsers, Game Consoles, Server Operating Systems, Web Server Software, and Music Players. Microsoft is unable to compete on a level playing field. This is of course why they back software patents, so that they don’t have to compete, like they don’t have to compete with personal computer operating systems thanks to their monopoly.
Apple at least is capable of competing (though they don’t like doing so). If I didn’t already have a phone, I’d look closely at HTC, anyone that Apple is that scared of, must have an excellent product.
Needs Sunlight said,
April 8, 2010 at 7:41 am
The report vastly overestimates the growth of Microsoft’s imitation of Java. Most of that illusion can be attributed to windbags like Miguel deMicrosoft and the Mono Guard.
Objective C has explosive growth from the popularity of the iPhone.
Now that everyone and their dog has figured out how to load Android, even on phones that came with other systems, Java’s current growth will speed up. Java already dominates in business, but Android will push it out to hobbyists now that and people are finally catching on to it being GPL, the signal that it is ready to use.
VB is the bad joke that won’t die, but there is light. Most applications in that arena now allow scripting in Javascript or Python, which are already ubiquitous. So it is not necessary to keep around the baggage of legacy staff just for a few macros.
Dr. Roy Schestowitz Reply:
April 8th, 2010 at 9:51 am
All the Ps (PHP, etc.) can probably expect a surge too. Other data collectors/surveys produce graphs which indicate Ps going through the roof.
Microsoft hopes to run the Ps under Windows, but after 3+ years with Zend it seems like a dying adventure. The latest stunt comes from Microsoft’s Amazon entryism and patent deal (discrimination against Red Hat).