Vala wasn't created due to licensing concerns but rather because it could provide a high-level language for Gtk+ applications that was at the same time safer an

Vala wasn't created due to licensing concerns but rather because it could provide a high-level language for Gtk+ applications that was at the same time safer and as performant as C. This is because at that time writing Gtk+ applications in C required lots of boilerplate, was extremely error-prone, and had not attracted as many contributors to GNOME. There were C# (Mono) bindings available for Gtk+ long before Vala was invented and even a few GNOME applications using them, but C# Gtk+ apps didn't take off. I doubt anybody that chose Vala would have preferred to write their programs in C#. Because even if licensing concerns were not an issue, the performance of Mono was not up to par. Also, installing a Mono app pulled in huge dependencies, which gave it a reputation for bloat.