On Sun, 2009-06-07 at 18:36 -0400, Mark Fink wrote: > I hope you get rid of MONO. only then can your reputations be restored. > From my point of view, I don't see any reason why we should restrict software developers from programming in a language or environment in which they feel comfortable.
Ubuntu has development environments for C, C++, ObjectiveC, D, Pascal, Fortran, Haskell, Perl, Python, R, Ruby, BASIC, Java, OCaml, Ada, COBOL, and probably a dozen really important languages that didn't fall off the top of my head. Why should Ubuntu actively prevent a developer from writing software in C# if they wish? That software may not even be intended to be shipped in Ubuntu, what if they want to use Ubuntu as the basis for an application that happens to be written in C#? Do you seriously believe we shouldn't allow this? For that reason, I actively and passionately disagree with any argument that a C# Development environment such as Mono should not be provided for Ubuntu. Since I believe that software developers should be allowed to program in whatever language they like, I'm obviously not going to be hypocritical and suggest that free software developers should not be allowed to. If a free software developer chooses C# to write their application. I don't see that we should treat it any differently as if they had written it in C, or Python, or Haskell. We should select the applications in our default install based on merit, on features, on ease-of-use and other more important matters. So for that reason, you'll find a couple of Mono-based applications in Ubuntu simply because they are the best of their breed right now. On a personal note, I really quite like C#. This is unsurprising, I grew up with Borland's development tools; I cut my teeth on Turbo C++ and Turbo Pascal, and my first real foray into GUI development was with Borland Delphi. It'd be surprising if I didn't like Anders' latest creation. On the patent concerns, the only thing I'd say is that patents are inherently uninteresting unless they are being enforced by their holders. Since Microsoft are not currently enforcing any C#-related patents--indeed is it even known whether they hold any?--that doesn't appear to be a concern. If you are worried about software in Ubuntu that is alleged elsewhere[0] by Microsoft to infringe patents it does hold, and is apparently actively enforcing, I suggest starting a separate thread to discuss removing the kernel from the archive. Scott [0] ie. to another Linux distributor, not to us -- Scott James Remnant sc...@ubuntu.com
signature.asc
Description: This is a digitally signed message part
-- Ubuntu-devel-discuss mailing list Ubuntu-devel-discuss@lists.ubuntu.com Modify settings or unsubscribe at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-devel-discuss
