Mono: Why is Debian resorting to spin?

Sam Varghese
Wednesday, 15 July 2009 07:36

Opinion and Analysis

When communications people try to clarify things, they often end up doing worse than they did the first time and tie themselves in knots. Reichle-Schmehl is no exception.

It was left to the cantankerous Mouette to write a Q and A in his own style, answering what should have been answered and adding a couple of personal slurs against me, Millan, BoycottNovell editor Roy Schestowitz and Stallman.

Reichle-Schmehl's spin wasn't very good. He tried to use the fact that statistics from the popularity contest package - which checks the packages installed and reports back to the Debian project for analysis of usage -  indicate that Mono was being installed as default only for some users.

But on looking closely at the statistics he provided it is clear that this subset is nearly 20 percent of the users in question.

There are a couple of things that come to mind here. First, the popularity-contest application is not installed by default - as with many other things that happen during a Debian install, the project has ensured that the installation of this bit of software is a choice made by the user.

Many users consider even pop-con intrusive and do not install it - I have foux boxes running three ports of Debian and I have not installed it on a single one. Which means the statistics put out by pop-con are really not all that reliable.

But even if they are, 20 percent is a fairly big slice of one's userbase, not some inconsequential group.

The question of using applications that are dependent on Mono has been a vexatious one for a long time. Nobody in the FOSS community has ever raised an objection to the provision of the packages by any GNU/Linux distribution; it's only the question of making these applications a part of the default set that has resulted in endless arguments.

The Debian project has shown no inclination to discuss the issue on its mailing lists either, though most contentious issues are thrashed out there. This is a strange departure from the norm and leaves the door fully open for conjecture.

It would be good to see a statement, couched in plain language, from the project about its Mono stance.