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Criticism of Microsoft
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== Mono patent concerns == {{Further|Software patents and free software}} On July 6, 2009, Microsoft announced that it was placing their ECMA 334 and ECMA 335 specifications under their [[Microsoft Community Promise|Community Promise]] pledging that they would not assert their patents against anyone implementing, distributing, or using alternative implementations of .NET.<ref name="Port25CommunityPromise">{{cite web|title=The ECMA C# and CLI Standards|url=http://port25.technet.com/archive/2009/07/06/the-ecma-c-and-cli-standards.aspx|date=July 6, 2009|publisher=Port 25|quote="''Under the Community Promise, Microsoft provides assurance that it will not assert its Necessary Claims against anyone who makes, uses, sells, offers for sale, imports, or distributes any Covered Implementation under any type of development or distribution model, including open-source licensing models such as the LGPL or GPL.''"|access-date=July 7, 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130523083117/http://blogs.technet.com/b/port25/archive/2009/07/06/the-ecma-c-and-cli-standards.aspx|archive-date=May 23, 2013|url-status=dead}}</ref> Mono's implementation of those components of the .NET stack not submitted to the [[Ecma International|ECMA]] for standardization has been the source of patent violation concerns for much of the life of the project.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.zdnetasia.com/will-open-source-get-snagged-in-net-30102692.htm|title=Will open source get snagged in .Net?|last=Babcock|first=Charles|publisher=ZDNet Asia|date=August 7, 2001}}</ref> In particular, discussion has taken place about whether Microsoft could destroy the Mono project through patent suits.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.fsf.org/news/2009-07-mscp-mono|title=Microsoft's Empty Promise|last=Smith|first=Brett|publisher=fsf.org|date=July 16, 2009}}</ref> The base technologies submitted to the ECMA, and therefore also the Unix/GNOME-specific parts, are claimed to be safe due to Microsoft's explicitly placing both ECMA 334 ([[C Sharp (programming language)|C#]]) and ECMA 335 ([[Common Language Infrastructure|CLI]]) standards under the [[Microsoft Community Promise]]. The concerns primarily relate to technologies developed by Microsoft on top of the .NET Framework, such as [[ASP.NET]], [[ADO.NET]] and [[Windows Forms]] (see [[Base Class Library#Non-standardized namespaces|non-standardized namespaces]]), i.e. parts composing Mono's Windows compatibility stack. These technologies are today{{When|date=June 2012}} not fully implemented in Mono and not required for developing Mono-applications, they are simply there for developers and users who need full compatibility with the Windows system. In June 2009 the Ubuntu Technical Board stated that it saw "no reason to exclude Mono or applications based upon it from the archive, or from the default installation set."<ref>{{cite web |url=https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel-announce/2009-June/000584.html |title=Mono Position Statement |date=June 30, 2009 |quote=''It is common practice in the software industry to register patents as protection against litigation, rather than as an intent to litigate. Thus mere existence of a patent, without a claim of infringement, is not sufficient reason to warrant exclusion from the Ubuntu Project.'' |publisher=[[Canonical Ltd.]]}}</ref> The [[Free Software Foundation]]'s Richard Stallman has stated on June 2, 2009, that "[...] we should discourage people from writing programs in C#. Therefore, we should not include C# implementations in the default installation of GNU/Linux distributions or in their principal ways of installing GNOME".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.fsf.org/news/dont-depend-on-mono|title=Why free software shouldn't depend on Mono or C#}}</ref> On July 1, 2009, Brett Smith (also from the FSF) stated that "Microsoft's patents are much more dangerous: it's the only major software company that has declared itself the enemy of GNU/Linux and stated its intention to attack our community with patents.", "C# represents a unique threat to us" and "The Community Promise does nothing to change any of this".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.fsf.org/news/2009-07-mscp-mono|title=Microsoft's Empty Promise}}</ref> [[Fedora Linux|Fedora]] Project Leader Paul Frields has stated, "We do have some serious concerns about Mono and we'll continue to look at it with our legal counsel to see what if any steps are needed on our part", yet "We haven't come to a legal conclusion that is pat enough for us to make the decision to take mono out".<ref>{{cite web| title=Fedora is concerned about Mono| url=http://blog.internetnews.com/skerner/2009/06/fedora-is-concerned-about-mono.html| publisher=internetnews.com| date=June 12, 2009| quote=''We haven't come to a legal conclusion that is pat enough for us to make the decision to take mono out''| access-date=July 4, 2010| archive-date=June 19, 2009| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090619181811/http://blog.internetnews.com/skerner/2009/06/fedora-is-concerned-about-mono.html| url-status=dead}}</ref> In November 2011 at an [[Ubuntu Developer Summit]], developers voted to have the Mono-based [[Banshee (media player)|Banshee]] media player removed from Ubuntu's default installation beginning on [[Ubuntu version history#1204|Ubuntu 12.04]]; although reported reasonings included performance issues on [[ARM architecture family|ARM architecture]], blocking issues on its GTK+ 3 version, and it being, in their opinion, "not well maintained", speculation also surfaced that the decision was also influenced by a desire to remove Mono from the base distribution, as the remaining programs dependent on Mono, [[gbrainy]] and [[Tomboy (software)|Tomboy]], were also to be removed. Mono developer Joseph Michael Shields defended the performance of Banshee on ARM, and also the claims that Banshee was not well-maintained as being a "directed personal insult" to one of its major contributors.<ref name=itworld-bansheegeddon>{{cite web|title='Bansheegeddon' may see Banshee, Mono dropped from Ubuntu default|url=http://www.itworld.com/article/2734148/it-management/-bansheegeddon--may-see-banshee--mono-dropped-from-ubuntu-default.html|website=ITWorld|access-date=August 31, 2015|archive-date=July 10, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150710205702/http://www.itworld.com/article/2734148/it-management/-bansheegeddon--may-see-banshee--mono-dropped-from-ubuntu-default.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>
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