Microsoft and .NET

http://linux.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1596742&cid=316277...

Quoting: by fejjie (192392) writes: on Friday March 26, @12:23PM (#31627758)

As someone who actually knows Miguel de Icaza and someone who was there when Mono began, I can tell you with absolute certainty that he started Mono because he truly believes that it's a good platform. As do I and all of the other Mono developers (none of whom get a "fat paycheck" from Microsoft or anyone else). The Mono team is underfunded at Novell, so I and likely other developers have taken a pay CUT in order to work on what we believe in.

We are not paid to parrot any opinions from Microsoft or Novell. Our opinions are our own and we stand by them.

But isn't that exactly what one would expect a Microsoft shill to say? Seriously, I'm not writing this just to take a cheap shot.

I also think most people mis-underestimate the minor size of most business bribes. That's why large corporations have these ridiculously strict policies on not accepting schwag or meals or sports tickets or anything from vendors.

Of course, there's nothing preventing your "cousin" from getting an honorarium or two.

>Seriously, I'm not writing this just to take a cheap shot.

Of course you are.

In your defense, I'm sure that you no longer steal from charities or take advantage of the elderly.

I don't doubt their sincerity in their belief in the platform and their wish to create an open source version of it.

I just see no reason to share their outlook and many reasons to reject it.

I am suspicious of Microsoft's history of embrace and extend. They have repeatedly undermined open standards in the market place in order to gain an advantage over competitors by implementing near-standards with enough changes to create vendor lock-in.

This just seems to open the door for Microsoft to walk in and start using heavy handed legal tactics against corporations that distribute Linux. It does not matter if MS has a legal leg to stand on. MS can lose in Court and still drive Canonical, SuSE, or Red Hat into bankruptcy.

The SCO Group had agreements with Novell, IBM, and SuSE through various partnerships to share code and not hold each other liable for infringement (SuSE/Novell and IBM in project Monterey, Novell through the Santa Cruz Asset purchase). These agreements did not stop The SCO Group from suing these same partners.

Microsoft's pledge not to sue will not stop Microsoft from suing. Or they will just sell patents to Nathan Myrvohld and let him sue.

Ultimately, there is no need for a .net platform of Linux. Creating one does not benefit the community.

If you have a favorite application in .net or mono it can be ported to a non-.net based language.

Quoting:In your defense, I'm sure that you no longer steal from charities or take advantage of the elderly.

So you're saying he can no longer get a job with Microsoft?

What happens when Novell gets bought up?

The safest prediction of the year is nobody wants to buy Novell to run it as a tech company, they're going to break it up and sell off everything of value. They have something like a billion dollars in the bank, real cash money, so the real surprise is why they haven't been targeted for takeover long before this.

If they do get bought by someone who wants to actually run a business, they'll likely strip out the redundant legacy products, and jettison everything that isn't profitable, like OpenSUSE and Mono.

How many Mono hackers aren't employed by Novell? Any?

gus3 -

I don't believe that to be incorrect.

There are parties out there with a vested interest in Novell as an independent corporation. IBM, for one. If Novell gets bought out and dismantled, it will make IBM's case against SCO harder to fight. That is, assuming SCO wins the case in Utah, which has now gone to the jury.

Of course, if SCO loses, converting the SCO bankruptcy to Chapter 7 (shutdown, sell assets, pay creditors what can be paid, and most importantly, open the accounting books) will become a LOT easier.

Steven: I don't know the count, but Mono gets contributions from quite a few places (both paid and unpaid). I've seen contributions from HPC, Canonical, Intel, IBM, Unity (the 3D game engine company), Mainsoft (a pretty big contributor), Siemens, Mindtouch (Matt Asay's previous company), OpenDental, and many independents afaict (lots of @gmail, @web.de, etc free accounts) from scanning the Mono-Devel mailing-list and commits lists.

Quoting:They have something like a billion dollars in the bank, real cash money, so the real surprise is why they haven't been targeted for takeover long before this.

I guess the cash is exactly the reason why: If a companies value is in the dollars it owns, it's hard to speculate about their value or negotiate about what they're worth when buying them. Companies who don't own any cash but only have 'assumed IP' are more interesting: First convince the company they're worthless, buy them (maybe going short while doing so?), convince the market they're of high value and then sell them, that kind of work. Although, that's what I'd prefer if I were a hedge-fund. And of course fire some people during the process, lots of them probably.

Hans -

Novell has one of the largest patent catalogs in the business. Lots of IP there.

Quoting: But isn't that exactly what one would expect a Microsoft shill to say? Seriously, I'm not writing this just to take a cheap shot.

No you are writing it out of ignorance, so I forgive you.

Time to cool down folks,

As your resident shill [LXer only (so far)], let me advise you from knowledge this thread is a dead end. The basis of the story has already been refuted in a piece on Bloomberg.com*. And even slashdot has a whole thread how the story was reported incorrectly: http://linux.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=10/03/26/1458229

So move on folks. When my check clears I will sing the praises of dot Net(ting)**.

YBT

* Cannot locate this link, but I saw it several times in the thread to the original story, however, here is another that is more than a rebuttal, being a critique of the original story line. Note when we get bought, either by irrational love or Money, we stay bought.

** So comfy for a noon day nap.

Quoting:The basis of the story has already been refuted

So what? True LXerers don't care about reality or truth (or anything else outside LXer) and ramble on! Especially when the Icaza/ SCO flamefest is concerned we don't want the outside world to destroy our cosy party.

So thanks partypooper, you just ruined an otherwise fine flamefest.

> ...you just ruined an otherwise fine flamefest.

Hans, if you consider this a flamefest, I'd hate to show you some of the discussions I've been involved with/witnessed in the past (almost none of them here on LXer, though).

jd,

Hint: [serious] Hans is a funny guy, like me don't take him literally when he is humor mode[/serious].

YBT