On Thu, Apr 7, 2011 at 11:31 AM, harrismh777 <harrismh...@charter.net> wrote: > Steven D'Aprano wrote: >> >> Let's reword your concern slightly: >> >> >> It's difficult to take a claim of “free” seriously for >> technologies (including, but not limited to, HTML, CSS, C++, >> XML, Public Key Cryptography, packet-based multimedia, IPv6) >> that knowingly or unknowingly [the later not being a defence >> against infringement] implement techniques covered by specific >> idea patents held by an entity that allegedly demonstrates >> every intention, or at least some intention, of wielding them >> to restrict the freedom of software recipients. > > Steve, this is a straw man argument. Its not good argument to reword 'his' > concern, nor to provide a non-related analogy, nor to build a straw man that > you can easily knock down. In doing so, your argument loses merit (bad > enough) but also you end up missing the other point. > > No one is 'singling out' Mono. Mono and .NET are just examples of evil > proprietary frameworks|software designed to lock-in market share and usurp > freedom. There are *many* other examples that we might talk about. But the > main point is that if you value freedom, you will not support proprietary > frameworks.
>So, if a software package, like just for example (Cobra), relies > on .NET (or Mono) then Cobra is a bad thing for freedom in computer scinece. > If Python is free software ( at least GPL compatible license ) then Python > is a 'good thing' from the standpoint of freedom in computer science. That > was the comparison. > Cobra does not rely on a proprietary framework. It runs on Mono, which is an open source implementation of the ECMA-334 and ECMA-335 standards. The only difference between it and Python is that Python was developed at a research institute while .NET was developed at a corporation. > There is no FUD here... > > NO FEAR > Absolutely CERTAIN > NO DOUBT > >>At this point Microsoft has absolutely nothing to offer the computer science >>community at large except bzillions of euros ( or dollars ) of wasteful >>litigation and head-ache. Looks like FUD and smells like FUD. Unless you happen to be on Microsoft's legal team and know that they're about to sue everyone who's using Mono. > kind regards, > m harris > -- > http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list > -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list