Comment Re:C# is Proprietary (Score 3, Insightful) 115
'consider that Microsoft has not given Mono a legal blessing'
IANAL, and I have myself had reservations about this point...
However, it seems quite unlikely that MS would succeed in choking off core (C# + CLR) Mono development - for a lot of little reasons:
1. Novell appears to be Mono's primary backer and they appear to have real patent leverage w.r.t. MS.
2. Probably not many of the patents covering the core can hold water due to prior art. I think it's been suggested that MS + Sun together could launch a more effective patent attack. How likely is that? (things like WinForms, ASP, ADO would seem to be in greater danger)
3. Mono could still ship with the odd feature stripped or workaround mechanism in place.
4. MS can not simply beat up on who it feels like nowadays; not with the EU and others breathing down it's neck.
As an aside, can anyone think of a *language* implementation that was killed by patent litigation?
--
Mike Greaves
IANAL, and I have myself had reservations about this point...
However, it seems quite unlikely that MS would succeed in choking off core (C# + CLR) Mono development - for a lot of little reasons:
1. Novell appears to be Mono's primary backer and they appear to have real patent leverage w.r.t. MS.
2. Probably not many of the patents covering the core can hold water due to prior art. I think it's been suggested that MS + Sun together could launch a more effective patent attack. How likely is that? (things like WinForms, ASP, ADO would seem to be in greater danger)
3. Mono could still ship with the odd feature stripped or workaround mechanism in place.
4. MS can not simply beat up on who it feels like nowadays; not with the EU and others breathing down it's neck.
As an aside, can anyone think of a *language* implementation that was killed by patent litigation?
--
Mike Greaves
