The Microsoft-Novell Linux deal: Two years later (InfoWorld) [LWN.net]

The Microsoft-Novell Linux deal: Two years later (InfoWorld)

Posted Nov 21, 2008 11:14 UTC (Fri) by epa (subscriber, #39769)
In reply to: The Microsoft-Novell Linux deal: Two years later (InfoWorld) by vblum
Parent article: The Microsoft-Novell Linux deal: Two years later (InfoWorld)

Mono means monkey in Spanish.

Really, I think it is blowing FUD to 'allege' patent infringement while giving no details of what those patents are. If anyone could cite the patents concerned, it would be a great help, because as Miguel said:

The position of the Mono project has always been that we believe .Net includes a lot of innovation along with a good mix of well-known technology. So, if people found a patent infringement, we would take it out. If there's prior art, though, the patent is invalid. This is the way it is done in the open source world. A good example is Freetype. They discovered that they could not use a byte code interpreter for fonts, so they invented a different approach.
This kind of punditry is always light on details. We've grown used to this. Mono was criticized way before Novell acquired Ximian. There is an animosity toward "anything Microsoft," and it lowers the level of discourse that you can have.
I wish people focused on what the actual problems are. I am certainly against software patents. It is not only Microsoft that owns software patents, but hundreds of companies. But, I think Mono is singled out, and people give a free pass to lots of other projects.

(my italics)

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