Re: About the status of Microsoft .NET

[Ian Kelling]

Loïc Cerf <lcerf@dcc.ufmg.br> writes:

> Oi!
>
>
> Le 14/12/2023 à 22:21, sirdigimon a écrit :
>> I am writing to this email directory to ask specifically about the
>> programming environment that powers C# known as Microsoft .NET (see
>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.NET
>> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.NET> for a basic overview) , more
>> specifically, about its status and inclusion on software repositories
>> across GNU/Linux distributions (like Trisquel GNU/Linux, Parabola
>> GNU/Linux, etc.) given its primary issue: Its software patents.
>
> All the links then given are more than nine years old.  Here is a more
> recent discussion:
> https://trisquel.info/en/forum/something-about-csharp-mode-package-upcoming-gnu-emacs-29
>
> I copy-paste here the position I expressed there:
>
> The risk patents on .NET raise looked higher because, at the time,
> Microsoft "declared itself the enemy of GNU/Linux and stated its
> intention to attack our community with patents":
> https://www.fsf.org/news/2009-07-mscp-mono
>
> Fortunately, as far as I know, that intention was never put in
> practice
> 
> and the free software community has not much embraced C# (Gnote
> replaced Tomboy, Shotwell replaced F-Spot, GNOME Shell replaced GNOME
> Do, etc.). Nowadays, Microsoft declares "it loves Linux". As a
> consequence, Microsoft will probably not use the patents on .NET to
> attack us: it would not hurt the free software community much but
> would hurt the image Microsoft now wants to show.

Until around 2019, microsoft was charging companies shipping exfat
drivers in linux. If I recall, the exfat linux patent revenue was over a
billion dollars. Microsoft declared its "love" for linux in 2014. This
narrative that patent attacks would be too damaging to microsoft's image
is a false narrative.