October 5th, 2007
de Icaza: .NET source code release a non-event for open source world
Microsoft’s release of .NET classes under its shared source license will not benefit the Mono project or any other open source project, maintains Miguel de Icaza, Novell’s vice president of engineering.
In an e-mail exchange, de Icaza, co-founder of the GNOME desktop, Ximian and the Mono Project said the .NET classes fall under the provisions of Microsoft’s Reference License, which is not an open source license.
The Novell-sponsored Mono project crates software that allows users to develop and run .NET client and server applications on Linux, Solaris, Mac OS X, Windows and Unix.
“The release of the code does not help us. The release of the code
helps Windows developers using Visual Studio,” Miguel wrote, when asked about possible benefit to open source developers. “It will not help in any way. It only helps Windows .NET developers.”
He added that it will be a valuable tool to track down bugs but noted that most large organizations likely have agreements in place with Microsoft to get access to this data if they need.
“In large and important deployments access to the source was most likely mandatory,” he added. “This is just extending that access to more people. But again, only to people using Windows and .NET.”
Won’t it help with interoperability?
de Icaza said there might be some benefit but he minimized its importance. “”If someone ever had a question about how to interoperate with .NET, this certainly would address that issue from beginning to end,” de Icaza wrote in his e-mail.
It’s probably old news by now that de Icaza views Microsoft’s announcement as a non-event for the open source community.
A note on the Mono project’s web site underscores this point but a disclaimer at the end may have left the wrong impression.
“Since the source code release from Microsoft later this year will not be open source, this code will have no impact on Mono’s schedule as it will not be able to use any of the information included in this code,” according to a statement posted on the Mono project after the announcement.
“Mono’s policy on contributions continues to be the same that we have had over the years: “If you have seen Microsoft .NET source code in any shape or form (source code, decompilers, through NDAs or research licenses), you will not be able to contribute patches to the Mono implementation.”
Paula Rooney is a Boston-based writer who has followed the tech industry for almost two decades. See her full profile and disclosure of her industry affiliations.
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