Re: cross-platform programs

Tech-Archive recommends: Fix windows errors by optimizing your registry

Kevin Spencer <kevin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

<snip>

> > The same is *not* to of MS, as far as I can tell. Yes, there's the Mono
> > project, but there's been no guarantee (as far as I've seen) that MS
> > won't sue companies who distribute Mono as part of their solution,
> > based on intellectual property infringements.
>
> I doubt that the Mono project is working without Microsoft's knowledge and
> consent.

MS certainly knows about Mono. As for consent? Well, they may have an
admiration for the team, I don't know - but they *haven't* stated that
they've checked for IP violations in there.

> However, it would appear that Microsoft doesn't want anyone
> indiscriminately to write a .Netimplementation for any OS. I doubt that Sun
> does either. It wouldn't be logical to do so.

The differences are that:
a) Sun *do* licence the Java spec to other companies (eg IBM)
b) Sun offer their JRE on multiple platforms already.


The legal situation of running a JRE on Linux and Windows is a *lot*
rosier than the legal situation of running Mono on Linux and .NET on
Windows. There's also the technical aspect of things (the JRE has the
same codebase for both platforms, which certainly can't be said of Mono
and .NET.)

To my mind it's *currently* a no-brainer decision between .NET/Mono and
Java when it comes to cross-platform software for an ISV to develop. MS
could fix that fairly easily, but at the moment they're choosing not to
do so. Pity - I prefer C# to Java on the whole...

--
Jon Skeet - <skeet@xxxxxxxxx>
http://www.pobox.com/~skeet Blog: http://www.msmvps.com/jon.skeet
If replying to the group, please do not mail me too
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: cross-platform programs
    ... > a) Sun *do* licence the Java spec to other companies ... > b) Sun offer their JRE on multiple platforms already. ... > same codebase for both platforms, which certainly can't be said of Mono ... which resulted in a catastrophic absense of support for Java on Windows XP, ...
    (microsoft.public.dotnet.languages.csharp)
  • Re: Languages, .NET, and shareware
    ... Mono emulates nothing. ... there is no such thing as a C# standard. ... http://www.kaffe.org/ appears to be an implementation of the Java virtual ... But if the market shifts somewhat in the direction of Linux, ...
    (comp.software.shareware.authors)
  • Re: c# embodies OSS; java CSS
    ... > language now that Linux is moving to the desktop. ... > opensource java or an alternative will be chosen that will not be to ... I agree that Mono may have a few legal issues. ...
    (microsoft.public.dotnet.general)
  • Re: .Net is awesome
    ... Java can lay claims to perfecting yet. ... Even with Mono, I don't we'll ever ... see real cross platform Nirvana. ... >> technology I've chosen to move forward with due to my history with MS, ...
    (microsoft.public.dotnet.general)
  • Re: Write Once, Dont Call the Next Day...
    ... Go mono. ... Mono is a trojan horse that will kill or wound Linux in future. ... Because Microsoft has patents on parts of it, ... > a Java vendor) ...
    (microsoft.public.dotnet.languages.vb)