08.26.09
Both Developers and Users Are Not Interested in Mono
“I hereby demand Microsoft in my Linux”
Summary: The Mono riddle begs for source of the claims of “demand”
ABOUT A week ago we showed that Mono was largely rejected by the Free software development community. There is another article on the subject right now. It says about C#:
Its use stands at – hold your breath – 1.24 percent, just one-hundredths of a percent more than assembly language.
Mono, for the uninitiated, is an attempt by Miguel de Icaza, the co-founder of the GNOME desktop project and currently vice-president of Novell, to replicate parts of Microsoft’s .NET development environment as an open source project.
Novell is the same company that signed a patent indemnification deal with Microsoft in November 2006, which gave the latter opportunities to spread FUD about Linux. The charges which were levelled have remained just that – unproven charges.
It is not only developers who neglect Mono and C#. Users too are seemingly fed up with it. Even before the FSF expressed its opposition, about three quarters of the readers of TuxMachines said "No" to Mono. Here is another sole voice responding to the issue:
GNOME in .NET? – Not on my desktop!
[...]
I believe the weapon of Mono is to “get Linux users hooked” to the .net environment, always offering the superior and more mature version on the Windows platform. Just like when you first tried alcohol you would probably start off on lighter products until you acquired a taste for it, progressing later in life to liking stronger spirits. With Windows having the “definitive version” and users hooked or caught in the .net, Microsoft could effectively remove or hold to ransom the addiction of using .net from non-Windows users. Just an idea, but from a PR standpoint IMO it would seem far more viable than MONO being used to trick people into installing Microsoft patent infested code.
Novell’s Visual Studio copycat proceeds to embracing other languages and as we explained here before, MonoDevelop helps Windows [1, 2]. █
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Charles Oliver said,
August 26, 2009 at 12:05 pm
Gnome going mono at it’s core has been talked about for a while. I really hope it doesn’t come to pass.
I don’t have a real issue with having mono around for people who want to use it. If it actually lived up to the hype that it would allow Windows developers to move to Linux, then maybe there would be a point to it.
Having now gone mono free on my desktop, I don’t much want to have to change desktop environments.
If Miguel really wanted to do something good, he’d look at what’s good in .net, java, python, perl etc. and then get some guys together to develop something better. Isn’t that what the best of FOSS software is, better than that which surrounds it.
Roy Schestowitz Reply:
August 26th, 2009 at 1:14 pm
See the MCP. It’s not allowed.
Charles Oliver Reply:
August 26th, 2009 at 4:45 pm
What’s not allowed? Encouraging windows users to Linux? Making something better than c# and .net?
Roy Schestowitz Reply:
August 26th, 2009 at 6:36 pm
Deviating from ECMA.
Charles Oliver said,
August 26, 2009 at 7:03 pm
I was actually suggesting the creation of a new language, nothing c#, nothing .net, a community developed language.
That way you aren’t three steps behind the monopolist player’s variant.