Re: GNOME, .Net and Mono

["Jeroen Benckhuijsen" <jfbenck home nl>]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Elliot Lee" <sopwith redhat com>
To: "Gérard Milmeister" <gemi bluewin ch>
Cc: <gnome-devel-list gnome org>
Sent: Sunday, February 03, 2002 8:32 AM
Subject: Re: GNOME, .Net and Mono


>
> On 1 Feb 2002, Gérard Milmeister wrote:
>
> > I would like to know what GNOME developers think about Miguel's
> > recent comment about GNOME, .Net and Mono...
>
> It really isn't any more relevant what the GNOME developers think than
> what Miguel thinks - when the stuff is finished, people will make their
> individual choices to use or not to use it. Until then, all this
> speculation and dirt digging just turns the open source development
> process into a soap opera...
>

I think elliot is right. Whining about wheter we should or shouldn't
incorporate Mono in the mainstream Gnome aren't really an issue right now.
Developing Mono to a 1.0 version will take some time. Until then, I think
it's good to dicuss the design and implementation of Mono (although this
should take place on the mono-list IMHO), not wheter to use it. When
reaching 1.0 status (or even somewaht earlier), I think it's up to miguel to
prove to all of us (or the majority) we should be using Mono. Any arguments
now are just speculation, because i don't think any of us can predict how
well Mono (or the whole of .Net for that matter) will work.

Besides that, i think Mono is a great innitiative. I know it's orriginally
from M$, however just looking at M$ in a technical way, will show that not
everything that comes from Redmond is bad. I think it's the power of Open
Source to aquire these ideas and adjust them to our own needs. Thinking
about our "war" against M$, i think any initiative to bring down the market
share of windows is one extra.

Wheter or not .Net and Mono will work, i don't know really. I've played a
bit with .Net and i think it's nice. There are some really nice features
there, although it's not the ultimate sollution. Until .Net and Mono have
the ability to prove themselves i think it's in the interrest of both the
people in favor and the people against it to support the development
process. After this initial process it's time to discuss wheter or not to
use it.

Ultimately the descision has ot be made wheter or not to use Mono. Some
people fear Miguel will force Mono to be incorporated (using Ximian).
However i don't think this fear is legitimate. Forcing us to use Mono, will
really piss of the developers and result in developers walking away from
gnome, resulting in less applications and less users. I don't think it's in
the interest of Ximian to decrease the number of gnome developers/users. To
conclude, it think we can trust in the ability of the community to decide
wheter or not to use Mono.

Jeroen