According to this excellent analysis by Groklaw, NET and “interoperability” has been an anti-linux trap all along, invented to trick Intel into abandoning GNU/Linux. Mono is an important component of Microsoft’s 2002 plan to get people to stick with Windows as a development environment, but it is a failing effort. “Interoperability” is a poor substitute for freedom and those who persue it will always be dragged around by the nose and their software experience will be something like what Windows has always provided. Intel ignored Microsoft and so do other sensible people. This letter from Microsoft clearly shows what their plans were all along and Mono advocates are clearly dupes who listened to Microsoft’s “white picket fence” talk only to be screwed over. Microsoft basically admits that GNU/Linux was technically better the whole time.

Eight years after Microsoft promissed Intel interoperability, the Windows platform is still a hostile piece of work. XP, for example, still treats all other file exchange protocols as second class citizens. Want to make a link to a particular document on an ftp server? Too bad. Want to use sftp? Go buy a client. X11? Same thing and Vista breaks the popular clients. Play ogg vorbis or theora? Ha ha, right. CSS, SVG, ODF and on and on it goes. I’m not sure what people get in return for opting to use such a poorly performing, hostile OS.

All free software work involving Microsoft should be abandoned. It never ceases to amaze me that people still uses their second rate platform as a desktop but this is a disease that feeds itself. Intel engineers, “raised on Unix/Linux” knew better. People who use Windows daily don’t and can’t. When you use non free software to solve your problems, you remain ignorant of what free software can do for you. When all you know is Windows, you will teach your friends and clients to solve their problems with awful kludges that work on Windows. The more free software that’s ported to Windows, the less incentive these people feel about moving and the more they feel “sensible” people endorse their poor choice of platform.

Next time, you guys might want to do a little more research. You guys are looking a might bit foolish right now.