We've been riding the Roller-Coaster of Drama this week in the tech community, and I was considering composing an overview of it. But Hans Bezemer just posted and said it all for me better than I could say it myself.
So go check out his post, where he comes with the Flashlight of Rationality to lead us out of the Trenches of FUD and back to the Sunny Light of Reason. For once I can just sit back and go, "Yeah, what he said!" About evangelists, attempts to divide the community, Mono Kool-Ade, MS's code submission regarding Hyper-V, and Linus Torvalds' quote and how it's been taken out of context. (waaaaay, way way out!)
And of course, some pro-Mono asstroturfers who are now cwying and clutching their bwankies because they didn't succeed in making all the Linux community bloggers go hang themselves.
Glyn Moody also throws in a hand, comparing the current Mono-culture-clash with the old KDE-Qt-vs-Gnome debate.
He gets second mention this time, because, well, 'purist' and 'pragmatist' is a distinction that just can't stretch to cover enough edge cases this time. If you're a purist because you were concerned that bad choices could lead to a crippled platform, doesn't that make you a pragmatist, too? For example, I prefer Free Software tools for 100% pragmatic reasons. When it comes to toys (i.e. games) I'm just as happy with proprietary as open source. Tools vs toys - see, I can do alliteration too!
By the way, the fourth financial quarter just rolled around, and MSFT is tanking like a dead mastodon. We're talking declines as high as 30% here. Ooooooh, so that's why all the distraction!
As I recently told somebody else this week (a plagiarist thug) whom I'd rather not bring up, "Pull my other leg - it plays Pachelbel's Canon in D".
Man, some weeks, you just can't trust anybody!
Comments:
I'm not going to weigh in too much, although I'm pretty much middle of the road on this one. But, I have to agree that Microsoft's motivations are shaky at best.
We're switching over to a full MS shop where I work (using .Net and C#) from doing WAMP for several years (not a move I agree with, but it pays the bills and I'm not ready to go off on my own). Anyway, what I'm noticing is that the C# "Standard" as published by ECMA trails behind the Microsoft version by at least a release or two. And that's because with every .Net release MS adds language features to C# that make implementing the .Net stuff easier.
A case in point is LINQ, which is a query language embedded into C#. This is fine as far as it goes, but I would not be surprised if it's patented up the wazoo. So implementing it in a free version of C# will be quite dangerous. As far as I can tell the core of C# is a pretty good language. But they keep tacking on more and more features. It's getting quite baroque. The two features that come to mind immediately are attributes and LINQ.
I guess my take on it is there are small groups within MS that are genuinely wanting to be friendly. But they are just small parts of the juggernaut. It's like your little toe deciding to go a different direction. No matter what it does, it's not going to get the attention of the rest of the foot, let alone the brain.
Well, so much for not saying much. Anyhoo, I love reading your stuff Pete, whether it's directly FOSS or not. And I've been reading your comic since it started up. Good stuff. Keep it up.
I expected to be attacked within days, but up to now the Mono bloggers are pretty silent. Still, I sincerely hope this blows over, the community stays more or less intact and ad hominem attacks cease for a while.
I was involved in one of the KDE/Gnome flamewars a few years ago, but I've never seen something like this. Yes, at LXer they had it right: somebody did push my button and yes, let's stick to the message, not the messenger.
What part of the triple E's (Embrace, Extend, Extinguish) didn't they understand?
So I am left with some basic questions about the motives of these guys/gals. Even giving them the benefit of the doubt the best I can come up with is....
are they:
1. Complete morons drooling on their chins all day?
2. So enamored of Mono/.Net they are willing to overlook completely the last 30 years of Microsoft history for this one technology?
3. So over confident in their beliefs they are willing to risk the entire FOSS/Linux effort by including and or forcing questionable IP in Linux?
4. Working for the "man" and just doing their jobs thanks?
I try to be open minded but every time I see a post by one of these guys it contains some of the cheapest attack tactics I have ever seen being used. Dare to speak of the clearly obvious potential dangers Mono represents, given Microsoft's proven attitude towards Linux, and these guys go off the deep end.
Hey, if they want to scratch their itch screwing around with Mono more power to them...but Linux distros and associated companies would be wise to keep Mono and its proponents at a safe distance.
As to RMS being unfair to women etc. what a load of horseshit. HE WAS KIDDING for craps sake! If a person is so damn politically correct they walk around with their panties in a bunch all day then they better avoid all the other great political incorrect people/groups in the world like Monty Python, George Carlin, Firesign Theater and all the other stuff I find incredibly funny in all its inappropriate and politically incorrect brilliance.
Maybe to avoid having those panties riding up their wazoos so high they should spend the day listening to scintillating tunes of Pat Boone or the thought provoking commentary of someone Sean Hannity. Something or someone less prone to sending their PC meters so dangerously off the charts and their panties so painfully high up their wazoos.
(Odd how RMS became suddenly so politically incorrect....right after he spoke out against Mono.)