On Thu, 07 Apr 2011 00:03:54 -0500, harrismh777 wrote: > Ben Finney wrote: >> It's difficult to take a claim of “free” seriously for a technology >> (Mono) that knowingly implements techniques (the “C#” language, the >> “.NET” platform, etc.) covered by specific idea patents held by an >> entity that demonstrates every intention of wielding them to restrict >> the freedom of software recipients. > > Yes, precisely. > > In my view, Mono encourages .NET; and that's bad. Idea patents and > particularly idea patents covering mathematics
Do you have an example of a patent covering mathematics that applies to .NET? > ( every known piece of > software ever written can be described by lambda algebra ) And every piece of hardware can be described by a mathematical function, so does this mean you oppose *all* patents? > are not truly > patentable... which is why some of us are vigorously fighting software > patents (as well at the corporations who wield them). What are you doing to fight software patents? > Software must be free (as in freedom). Encouraging interoperability with > known agendas against freedom is inconsistent with the fundamental > proposal. I would have thought that if you really, truly believed in freedom, you would be happy to allow people the freedom to interoperate with non-free software. But perhaps you meant that software must be free, provided only the right sorts of freedom are supported. > C# was an effort to lock-in commercial developers into the > .NET framework (and it almost damn-well worked!). Got a source for that? "News just in: 100% of all enterprises are using .NET or Java!" http://discuss.fogcreek.com/joelonsoftware5/default.asp?cmd=show&ixPost=162367 <sarcasm> And you can trust it because Forrester said so! </sarcasm> As I see it, C# has never had more than an 8% market share. But perhaps you have some better data. > 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. Do you have an example of this wasteful litigation? -- Steven -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
