Mono: Shielding the facts

Sam Varghese
Sunday, 21 June 2009 23:13

Business IT - Technology

A few more non-arguments from Shields' essay:

Mono is not the result of any deals between Novell and Microsoft (used to argue that Mono is not a threat). This does not make Mono kosher. It is cloning a Microsoft technology which is bound to use patented methods. Unless and until there is a clear statement about licensing - an open, official statement - this kind of blather from Mono apologists is mere verbiage.

Mono is covered by the OIN. This has no value at all. The OIN or Open Invention Network says clearly: "Patents owned by Open Invention Network are available royalty-free to any company, institution or individual that agrees not to assert its patents against the Linux System." The patents that are in Mono are not owned by OIN. Hence this kind of statement is mere fluff.

Regardless of whether or not any specific patent licenses over ECMA 334 and 335 cover Mono's implementation of those standards, if indeed such agreements are available (iTWire's curlish "attempt" to secure such an arrangement aside), the fact that statements have been made in public supporting the idea of royalty-free licensing essentially reduces the financial impact of such infringement to zero. Rubbish. Public statements have no standing in a court of law. Specific legal agreements do.

Mono cannot be "disabled" via an incompatible change to Microsoft.NET, for two reasons. Rubbish. Microsoft has repeatedly changed its standards in the past - the company waits until there is sufficient critical mass to ensure that people have to follow its standards, no matter where it leads. We've seen this time and time again. Fool me once...

Absence of "patent protection" is not the same thing as "patent violation". This is mere semantics. If you use patents from Microsoft without licensing them, believe me they will be at your front door in the morning to collect.

The layering of escape routes is extensive in Mono, especially Mono in Debian/Ubuntu. Rather than get bogged down by using Mono and then trying to escape from a bottomless put, the best escape route is not to use Mono at all.

Many of those who advertise themselves as anti-Mono are, quite frankly, frightening. There are lunatics in every camp, irrational idiots aplenty. This is not the monopoly of any camp. It does not make Mono advocates any more angelic than their detractors.