> Synchronizing and sharing the notes are not SaaS, though editing might
> be SaaS. So at least some of this service is basically ok, provided
> Gnote can also use it (because Tomboy's dependence on C# is a problem).
Again, I must certainly be missing something here, but if C# represents such
a problem in and of itself, how is it that gnu.org develops, maintains and
supports the DOTGNU project, which "aims to be for ... C# programs what
GNU/Linux is rapidly becoming for desktop and server applications"?
Either C# is a problem or it's not, and if it is, why is there a GNU project
to support it? If it's not, what exactly are we talking about?
(http://www.gnu.org/software/dotgnu/)
It is the same set of half truths that Richard has been spreading
for a while on C#.
Richard will respond that C# is a slippery slope to allow developers
to use APIs that might have been patented, so it should be avoided.
He has never addressed the fact that the ideas embedded in .NET APIs
have been copied extensively by plenty of open source projects, beyond
those that use Mono and that every one of those projects would then be
in as much risk.
It is not my job to point out those projects, I do not believe in
fighting FUD with FUD, but any .NET expert that spends some time with
a modern distribution would be able to point out ideas and APIs that
were originated at Microsoft and could potentially infringe on the
very same patents.
C# the language, and the core .NET libraries are under a
far-from-ideal "Community Promise" patent license. Sadly, this patent
grant for the ideas embodied in those standards are made available by
Microsoft to full implementations of C# and those core class
libraries. But they are not available to third party languages.
So in fact, the ECMA subset of C# and the ECMA subset of the class
libraries comes with patent protection, but if people made copies of
those ideas for other languages and other execution environments, they
would not be protected from a potential Microsoft patent threat.
Richard has sadly become very disconnected from technology so he does
not understand the finer print. He relies on third parties to provide
him with an analysis, and those people are sadly not well equipped,
informed or are too driven by hate to provide sound advise.
I could help Richard and we could work together, but he has decided
that I am a traitor of the movement. So in the meantime I do what I
do best: I write free software and I build it on the platform that I
enjoy working the most, C# and the ECMA CLI [1]
[1] Well, mostly. I also write proprietary software for proprietary
platforms like the iPhone and Microsoft Visual Studio. But I have
been enjoying learning new things.
