4 ms·

Do you feel the same way about MySQL, Java, or Eclipse, for example? Why is it so bad that a group of developers are motivated to port a commercial product? And

by lrm242 17y ago

Do you feel the same way about MySQL, Java, or Eclipse, for example? Why is it so bad that a group of developers are motivated to port a commercial product? And why is the reaction "MS should do this" instead of "Thanks MS for helping out". I just don't get the animosity around Mono and Moonlight. Those guys have balls, and they're doing great work to bring a set of technologies and tools to Linux. Why is this in any way bad? And please leave the IP poisoning arguments at the door--those have been thoroughly addressed and that horse has been beaten to a bloody pulp.

Tichy 17y ago
I was just expressing my personal opinion. I have nothing against them porting whatever they like. I just don't understand the motivation myself. Just think, what if the same effort that went into copying Silverlight had been put into creating a true open source alternative to Flash and Silverlight?
- leej 17y ago
  there "are" open source alternatives to flash.
  - Tichy 17y ago
    Which ones? I only know SVG, but I suspect it doesn't really cover everything that flash does.
zokier 17y ago
It's just strange that MS uses its resources, both directly and indirectly, to help Mono/Moonlight when it just could opensource (parts of) .NET/Silverlight.
- qeorge 17y ago
  The page indicates that Moonlight contains 125,000 LOC (of roughly 500k) from open source Silverlight controls put out by Microsoft.
- andrewl-hn 17y ago
  Patents or some other intellectual property rights might be an issue. Opensourcing a product of that scale can be very complicated. Java comes to mind, for example. It took Sun about two years from the initial announcement to a completely opensource release of JDK.