Changing distros is actually a good idea. It gives you a look at other options, and there is some really neat stuff out there. For example I switched to Moon OS a while back, and it’s really nice. I also would recommend trying Crunch Bang, it’s also really nice.

And the learning curve is very low. Both are based on Ubuntu, Moon OS uses Enlightenment, and Crunch Bang uses Open Box.

http://www.itwire.com/content/view/25215/1090/

You might think that this is not a big deal. Microsoft has said that they won’t sue. There’s several problems with this. The promise is somewhat vague as to what they will or won’t sure about. And companies have changed their minds before. The Microsoft of tomorrow may decide to. Lastly, Java was released under a free software license by it’s owner. While Mono is free software, it wasn’t even produced by the supposed “Intellectual Monopoly” holder. So the free software license is no protection if Microsoft decides that it’s no longer in their interest not to sue.

Since the legal status of Mono is problematic, I think it should be removed from every Distro that uses it, including Ubuntu and Fedora (yes, Fedora Gnome has Mono), until Microsoft gives concrete evidence that they approve of the project, and that approval is checked by a good FOSS lawyer (Lawrence Lessig comes to mind), or a good FOSS lawyer signs off on the current situation.

Basically it’s the same as with VLC. It’s a great package, but it can’t be included in distributions that are downloaded into the USA and certain other jurisdictions, because it uses codecs that are supposedly covered by patents in those jurisdictions.

How about Oracle buying Sun ?
1 – Must we replace all MySql based projects ? (because it’s a little foolish to think that Oracle will keep something that is competition to his own main product ….. plus his creator began to work a redo of MySql)
2 – Must we replace all Java based aplications ?

all to say that the Mono Debate is a false debate based on presumptions and hatred about Microsoft ….. That there is worse theme (like MySql one) that must be quickly resolved.

Microsoft is loosing control with his actual form of business …… The selling of windows is weakening in favor of alternatives (MacOs, Linux, etc). Company and People are tired of microsoft ……… Plus it’s old politic of changing of windows each 2 year will not work anymore.

About the presumptions, they may be true …. or false …… only the facts will validate this.

And, by the way, if you still wondering why Apple has only one button on his mouse : Microsoft has the patent that describe the contextual menu and the one that corresponds to the double click. So if you want to be Microsoft patent free ……. first clear those two patents

Best regards,

Karmic (or karmic+1) will probably increase mono-dependency and that’s it.

Yes, not much of a problem, not for end users as well. As I noted in the Mono Crusade, though, the issue is more about the (future) market you want to shape. Which is not one where anyone can sell any kind of IP peace of mind to anyone.

Removing Mono as a end user is choosing not to foster a development platform which may lead to that.

from my investigations I think that there is an even more succinct command required to remove Mono from a default install:

sudo apt-get purge libmono0 mono-common

That’s all you need.

I really hope Karmic doesn’t increase its dependence on Mono apps. But if it does, as long as the user can remove it and replace the apps with decent alternatives then I don’t see it as much of a problem.

SABDFL clearly understands the debate: http://www.theopensourcerer.com/2009/04/23/how-to-remove-mono-from-ubuntu-904-jaunty-jackalope/
Ciao

On top of that, the guy who made it simply does not understand what he’s conflicting – There’s no “mono” package in Debian or Ubuntu, and libmono{1,2}.0-cil are packages containing non-ECMA Free libraries such as support for Gettext translations. The core libraries are libmono-corlib{1,2}.0-cil.

The CORRECT way to achieve the same result is with /etc/apt/preferences and pinning things as uninstallable.

All that flame born out of a post announcing the creation of the Gnote PPA. Pretty amazing.