[DotGNU]If Microsoft likes Mono, can it be good for free software?

[TonStanco]

Excerpts from Internet Week story on Mono

http://www.internetwk.com/story/INW20010710S0006

Microsoft Gives Blessing To Open-Source .NET, But Analyst Smells A Rat... 

"Ximian's announcement is fundamentally a ringing endorsement of the .NET 
strategy and the vision of Internet services," said Tony Goodhew, product 
manager of the Microsoft .NET framework group.... 

But Microsoft's support of Mono is simply the same old same old for the 
software giant, IDC analyst Dan Kusnetzky said. Microsoft has historically 
achieved market dominance by controlling APIs, and forcing competitors to 
write software to its APIs, only to turn around and change those same APIs. 
"Instead of satisfying their own customers' demand, competitors are busy 
catching up with Microsoft," Kusnetzky said. "It looks like they've gotten 
someone in the open source community to play the game of following Microsoft 
around and trying to do what they do." ...

That leaves the Mono project--which takes its name from the Spanish word for 
"monkey"--playing a deadly game of monkey see, monkey do... 
   
Microsoft's support of Mono will likely play well in court...

[Note this one]
While giving the project its blessing, Microsoft also cautioned against 
violating Microsoft's intellectual property. The license for Mono software 
needs to be compatible with Microsoft's licensing policy, Goodhew said. He 
declined to comment further on the licensing issue...