I think you might have the history mixed up a bit. The Mono project started without Microsoft's involvement (and they were probably even annoyed by it at the ti

I think you might have the history mixed up a bit. The Mono project started without Microsoft's involvement (and they were probably even annoyed by it at the time). GNOME was betting on their own Vala language, which is still a thing, but never really gained much traction. Eventually Microsoft bought Mono during their embrace of open source.