Novell/Microsoft Mono Poison (Banshee) Put in Ubuntu 10.10 NBE by Default

Dr. Roy Schestowitz

2010-08-06 18:47:32 UTC
Modified: 2010-08-06 18:47:32 UTC

Summary: Novell's biggest patent liability -- with Microsoft patents that Microsoft excluded from its Community Promise (MCP) -- is being pushed into Ubuntu GNU/Linux

SOME MONTHS ago we congratulated Canonical for removing the Mono-based F-Spot from Ubuntu Netbook Edition (NBE) 10.10. But Canonical has just added to Ubuntu Netbook Edition something even worse. It decided to added the patent trap (excluded from the MCP) called Banshee -- a Novell product which the Mono lobbyists have been pushing into Ubuntu for well over a year. The latest OpenSUSE is already afflicted.

Thanks to Sebsebseb for alerting on about this poor decision from Canonical, which will replace a decent media player with a bloated Trojan horse from Microsoft and Novell:

As we told you a little while back, Banshee is now the default media player for Ubuntu 10.10 NBE and Alpha 3 sees the netbook interface for it enabled by default.

This addition is good news for Microsoft, which is also pushing Novell to promote .NET at API level, software patents aside. Earlier this week we wrote about Novell's helping hand to Visual Studio, which .NET booster David Worthington is promoting right now while ZDNet promotes it in the context of mobile devices. [via]

With Mono Tools for Visual Studio 2.0, Mono said it has created an easy way for .Net developers to build apps for the iPhone and (soon) Android platform.

Anyway, we encourage Ubuntu users to politely convince Canonical not to accept Banshee (which many users detest anyway). Ubuntu is not a democracy, but there is still room for consultation. We sometimes worry that certain people in Ubuntu underestimate the Mono problem (the CTO is shrewd enough to understand the dangers) and it's not helping that Microsoft is now supporting Jono Bacon with a free copy of Vista 7. From his Web site:

While I tried to get this working in Ubuntu, this particular hardware is not well supported so I needed to use Windows. I contacted a friend of mine at Microsoft and explained the project and she kindly hooked me up with a boxed copy of Windows 7 for the laptop.

This morning we showed that The Source had warned that Mono boosters are talking over parts of Ubuntu and since many GNU/Linux users depend on Ubuntu, this is risky business. The same is being done to MeeGo at the moment (Novell is pushing Banshee into it [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]). ⬆

Comments

twitter

2010-08-07 18:12:56

Unbelievable.... That's my only word for Jono advertising his use of Windows 7. I left him this comment.

Microsoft? You are kidding me. You took a $0.25 DVD as sufficient payment to endorse digital restrictions, bug #1 and the number one enemy of free software? I’m shocked that you did not solicit a laptop from Dell, System 75, Los Alamos Computers or any of the other fine OEMs that Ubuntu works with. Well, I’m not too shocked after your hatchet work against Boycott Novell. People at Microsoft are laughing at you.

I wonder if he will answer or "moderate" it.

Dr. Roy Schestowitz

2010-08-07 18:22:36

It doesn't matter is he will, not really. Yesterday I confronted him in Identi.ca/Twitter after he had used his Ubuntu podcast to spread a false allegation against Techrights. He didn't do this deliberately though; it was said when he was talking about "Winblows" and "Micro$oft" as bad spellings to use and then insinuated that we were saying "Stalinworth" (it's actually someone in identi.ca who wrote that, nothing to do with this site at all, not even comments/IRC). Anyway, the suggestion that the site compares Mark Shuttleworth to a vicious dictator and cleanser is bizarre since I usually defend Mark Shuttleworth in this Web site.

Jono ought to understand that we defend freedom; he doesn't need to daemonise the site using lies.

twitter

2010-08-08 18:19:27

This is more evidence that his hatchet job last year was deliberate. At the time he grinned and pretended Boycott Novell was off the tracks because search engines turned up smear jobs about the site. At best, his ambush of you was poorly researched, at worst it was deliberate. I would have expected him to do more homework this time after being called out for sloppy research. By now he should have noticed that Boycott Novell's position on Mono and many other issues has been echoed by the FSF and other people who carefully look into the issues.

If Jono subscribes to Richard Stallman's excellent news feed, he might also have noticed the use of the term Micro$oft there too. I quit using both Micro$oft and M$ because I was afraid that Google is not picking up the terms, not because trolls wasted lots of time on this trivial issue. Google should fix this issue because it is clear that serious criticism is intended by users of the terms and it is clear what the terms mean.

If Jono can't do better than this, Canonical should get someone who can.

Novell/Microsoft Mono Poison (Banshee) Put in Ubuntu 10.10 NBE by Default

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