Whee, More Mono!

by havoc

Seth did a nicer
job explaining the Mono issues than I ever did.

I would summarize as “any software could infringe
work around.” However, not all patents are the same. Some of the

  • Whether the patent is on an implementation technique or the
    work around)
    example Microsoft is maximally problematic)
  • How many patents there are in a given area
  • Perception issues: if you precisely copy someone else’s
    technology, it’s much easier to convince a jury your stuff
    is infringing than if you have something vaguely similar but with
    distinct heritage

technologies are not invented by and driven forward by the single

Miguel uses the Gnumeric analogy, of moving forward and ignoring the
hard problems for a while rather than letting them slow you
down. Great advice for technical problems. For legal and strategic
problems, sometimes but not always the best plan. Let’s find a
beyond our control.
Otherwise we’re rolling the dice. Rolling the
one’s own actions (such as writing code) can affect the outcome.

risk sinking the whole Linux boat in the long term. That’s why people
are “whining” as Miguel puts it. Novell is pressuring everyone to take
every right to whine about that.

is an alternative, maybe it isn’t; if it isn’t, that doesn’t make Mono
more viable.

(This post was originally found at http://log.ometer.com/2004-05.html#20.2)

My Twitter account is @havocp.