Stallman is a functional programming stalwart. Unix in general has had functional programming for a very very long time.

Not disputing either, but Stallman's statements had nothing to do with how useful Mono is. I was just pointing out what Mono brings to the table.

The reason C# is remarkable is that there are millions who are familiar with it (perhaps not the functional parts, which is somewhat new). There is no purely functional language (on any platform) with enough mind share to qualify as "popular". Popular sometimes has its advantages when working in a team; documentation, resources, tooling, availability of developers ... etc.

We have Java, as well as Python and various other languages on Linux for the niche Mono wants to fill

Actually Mono fills a niche not satisfied by any other language on Linux.
1. Python - too slow for any processor intensive tasks (I do a lot of python myself.)
-- not strongly typed, if the project decides to go that route.
2. Java, the language - No closures, lambdas, generators. Impossible to do any declarative programming. Many, many people hate it.

C# brings functional programming to the masses, and Mono brings C# to Linux.

I have great respect for America's determination to protect freedom and free speech. That word means a lot to you, as it does to me.

But wait, before you call it a Tiananmen square "massacre" - do you consider that ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND people are now dead in Iraq. Last week, a drone killed 140 people in Afganistan, mostly innocents.

So, as opposed to thousands of their own people killed by the Chinese, you went to another country and killed much much more.

I am not saying it is worse; just saying that taking a stance on moral issues is difficult. And often becomes very subjective.

Moonlight 1.9 is available as a preview, and is compatible with SilverLight 2. Not that there are any SilverLight websites I visit, but it is available if you badly need it.

SilverLight 2 is a massive departure from version 1 (for instance, it now includes the CLR), but going forward changes are expected to be minimal. Meaning MoonLight will easily keep up with SilverLight. And besides, since its a mini-CLR now, you could derive a lot from the original Mono effort.

Where can I download the source code from? Or, am I missing something here?

Though voice is more accessible and helps blind people, for the vast majority of non-blind users it is simply very inconvenient.

Many years back, I got a shuffle when I wanted a tiny MP3 player. It drove me nuts, and I bought a Sansa; same size, but comes with a screen and some useful features.

Just about every tiny MP3 player has a screen these days, but Apple is probably having the NIH syndrome.

.NET might be OK, if you are restricted to some very simple func.... 8859-1 coding, and the XML interface used.... Python and PyQt

All .Net strings have been unicode since it launched (in 2002), Python got there recently (yes, I write Python for a living these days). And .Net's XML support can only be compared to Java, and the newer releases (3.0 & 3.5) move beyond java in performance and capabilities. Just about everything, from Framework Configuration, to Serialization (pickle?), to Remote Method Calls use XML in .Net. In fact, there is so much XML that I hate it.

You made a very lame comment, and possibly got modded up by some people who have never ever used .Net.

Here is a copy of The Bill.

I just read through it, it makes several strong references to child pornography, couldn't find anything on "regular" porn though.

But anyway, this worldwide erosion of rights and freedom impacts the rich and poor countries alike. Except that in a country like India, you would have fewer voices speaking out because of other issues which are more important (like Hunger for instance). Such laws become tools for any state to silence dissidents.

You could silence critics by jailing them for looking at Porn. wow.