Fedora Core 5 to Include Mono

I too have been using Gnome since the 1.x days and linux/gnu since the 0.x days too (so I'm obviously a bit of an oldy). I wouldn't trust M$ further
than I could throw a complete collection of technet CDs.

M$ have some problems
1. Their OS doesn't run properly on a 64 bit architecture.
2. They opted for a microkernel based OS (based on mach32) which has
created an internal bottleneck that linux doesn't have.
3. UNESCO, national governments/transnational corporations and the
military industrial complex are moving towards linux based computing.
4. They are not very good at developing software technology - mach32
was developed by Carnegie-Melon University - MSDOS was bought -
to obtain Visio, RDBMS they had to buy the company etc. etc. They
cannot compete in a battle of production.
5. Linux has solved the i18n problem to such an extent that contributors
are now drawn from all parts of the globe - we have more people!

In order to survive M$ will have to adopt business strategies that are based around open source technology and that means hijacking linux/gnu
and Gnome. The tool M$ will use to do this is as always the proprietory
standard. Although the implementation is open source, M$ control the standard, changes to the standard and have a monopoly on determining
the future direction of software modules that depend on it and/or
interoperate with it.
Mono is in effect a trojan in this standards war and should be treated as
such.

Even if this was ok, if there are no apllicable patents, if Java or other VM
implementations existed we should still oppose integration of mono with
Gnome for business reasons of our own - namely - in the software
inovation game M$ have historically failed to co-operate with us (note the
understatement here). Our optimal strategy should then be tit-4-tat we should reject their overture. Perhaps if M$ support Mono in the open
source domain and open their patents on document formats, deliver on
promises to open source code for windows and contribute money to some
high profile open source projects (say PostgreSQL, Apache and FSF) for
lets say 10 years - then we would be happy to work with them *next time*.

In the meantime we should all work to keep linux/gnu Gnome independent of M$ code - that means everyone. Work on/use Mono if you wish but make sure that distributions do not come to depend on it, make sure that GARNOME keeps it in a seperate directory to be compiled manually as an option and support competing Gnu initiatives to the fullest extent possible.
Praise to RedHat for resisting this but if they concede in the end we will
have to create new distros that do NOT use M$ software until they have EARNED a reputation for being a trusted partner. At a minimum, M$ must
demonstrate that their future business strategy does not depend on any future stranglehold over our baby.

So I might trust them in 10 years if they are very nice and have something non Gnu as their core business in 2016. Even then I would take out an
insurance policy and wear kevlar (or Chobham armour)!

Morgannwg

GNUs United will never be defeated.

refs.
J Kay "Foundations of Corporate Success" Oxford University Press 1995
pp 102-112