Summary: Microsoft's influence on GNU/Linux comes from the expected vectors and resistance to this is still being suppressed

THE Mono and Moonlight charade carries on. Microsoft MVP Miguel de Icaza wants people to spread more of Microsoft's APIs inside GNU/Linux, making a special "Call to Action" on Valentine's day. From his call to action:

And you have a choice, you can use Boo, IronRuby, IronPython, F# for building your app. VB.NET is also available if you want to teach your sysadmin a lesson in humility.

It's okay, as long as it's from Microsoft. Is he saying that we should also buy software patent licences from Microsoft and use Silverlight? Does that stop there? How far will it go? Miguel de Icaza once wrote: “At Microsoft I learned the truth about ActiveX and COM and I got very interested in it inmediately [sic].”

Should we add that to GNU/Linux too?

One of the most rabid/outspoken fans of Mono, Philip Van Hoof (senior GNOME developer), is shooting from the lip again (this was previously mentioned in this post). For those who do not know, he is exceptionally hostile towards GNU and Richard Stallman and a lot has already been written about the subject. As the following new comments show, he resorts to very rude language (but we leave the words in tact):

TOM, please don’t comment on my blog anymore. You aren’t welcome. And yes, because I own the infrastructure that hosts this blog system (I really do) is it my right to ban you and remove your messages (please do go stand on your head and hate me for it, I don’t give a shit). I’m prepared to go as far as to add a iptables filter on your entire internet provider, so just don’t. You’ll just be wasting your time.

[...]

I removed two comments from a complete idiot moron who went by the name “truth-teller” or something ridiculous like that.

To this “truth-teller” idiot: you are banned from my blog. Please don’t post any new comments to any of my blog articles of the past and future. You aren’t welcome. And yes, because I own the infrastructure that hosts this blog system (I really do) is it my right to ban you and remove your messages (please do go stand on your head and hate me for it, I don’t give a shit). I’m prepared to go as far as to add a iptables filter on your entire internet provider, so just don’t. You’ll just be wasting your time.

Dear religious extremists like “truth-teller”: stop wasting everybody’s time. You’re not welcome, no. You guys *have* already consumed your right to free speech on my blog: you don’t have it any longer. Complain to yourself. I despise your hatred and I want you to know that I do not tolerate it here (and I do own this place, you don’t). About me despising your hatred: I want you religious extremists to know that I don’t necessarily consider stupidity immoral. I do consider your hatred immoral and unacceptable at a most fundamental philosophy. I know you don’t, but I hope you do understand what that means: you’re not welcome, at all. Just fuck off.

Miguel de Icaza is censoring his blog comments too (deleting comments that do not agree with him), just like Microsoft and IBM employees do when people disagree with them. Then again, we have always known that Mono relied on a fair deal of censorship (gagging opposition and abusing dissenting voices to discourage them). This behaviour rarely characterises Free software projects; it's more typical for a big company whose name starts with an "M".

“This behaviour rarely characterises Free software projects; it's more typical for a big company whose name starts with an "M".”"They seem to be defending .NET (see .NET criticism)," says Cubezzz.

There is nothing magical about Microsoft software. As Groklaw pointed out a few days ago when sharing this article about Microsoft software, "It turns out if you have a file larger than 500 megabytes, you have to get into some command line fu. Or, you could decide not to use proprietary products that lock you in unless you have such fu, and establish what you can and can't do according to what suits them. Seriously, read the article, and if you can follow his directions, you won't have a bit of trouble using FOSS alternatives, like Plone or Alfresco."

On the bright side, based on this new post about Lenny, Debian GNU/Linux can be kept Microsoft free.

Debian Lenny - my main desktop for two months

[...]

There's no Mono on this machine. Gthumb was the default, so there was no F-Spot, and I don't think there was Tomboy notes.I didn't install the C++ equivalent Gnote because I really don't need a notes application. I just use regular text files.

Let us hope that Microsoft's Linux entryism will fail miserably sooner rather than later. ⬆

“OMG OMG OMG OMG #silverligh4 has everything I wanted on it: full desktop apps with full system access”

--Miguel de Icaza