Their issue with the Promise is that it is too narrow and provides loopholes that allow Microsoft to sue developers and users if they really want to, and that their recent behavior demonstrates that they intend to do so.

From their statement: “If Microsoft genuinely wants to reassure free software users that it does not intend to sue them for using Mono, it should grant the public an irrevocable patent license for all of its patents that Mono actually exercises. That would neatly avoid all of the existing problems with the Community Promise: it’s broad enough in scope that we don’t have to figure out what’s covered by the specification or strictly necessary to implement it. And it would still be in force even if Microsoft sold the patents.

“This isn’t an unreasonable request, either. GPLv3 requires distributors to provide a similar license when they convey modified versions of covered software, and plenty of companies large and small have had no problem doing that. Certainly one with Microsoft’s resources should be able to manage this, too. If they’re unsure how to go about it, they should get in touch with us; we’d be happy to work with them to make sure it’s satisfactory.”

Therefore, I doubt that MS will do anything, legally or otherwise, to impede mono or apps written for mono. If anything MS may help mono development, since mono currently has some problems with late binding.

Horse manure. Ubuntu uses Gnome, which is hardly slick. You want slick, try Kubuntu, Mandriva or Fedora for KDE, Moon OS for Enlightenment, Crashbang for FluxBox, etc.

This isn’t to say that Gnome doesn’t work, it does, but it’s not slick. The new Gnome may change my opinion however.

Seems like a pretty big deal if your corporate customers have to hesitate and think about it. Most likely if they choose Ubuntu on the desktop they would remove the Mono components anyway.

The Mono apps are not in Fedora Live CD and that has been the case ever since Fedora 10 release. This is not a new development and done for space reasons and it is the same reason Gnote is now the default. Read the release notes

http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Fedora_12_Alpha_release_notes

Regardless, I see nothing compelling in Mono or the applications developed for it. Certainly nothing that would convince me to ignore such big red flags as deafening silence from Microsoft in response to direct queries concerning licensing .NET patents. But again, I’m just a “free-software militant”.

And since you all have a habit of editing out parts of your posts that don’t look good in hindsight (and from where I sit, this one doesn’t), here is the complete context for “free-software militant” from your post:

“While its position on Mono presents some risks and harms the operating system’s image among corporate customers and free-software militants, Ubuntu’s decision should serve as an inspiration to other Linux distributions.”

Yeah, Canonical is a beacon of inspiration, it is. Wow.

Is Canonical trying to produce a product that appeals to customers as an alternative to Microsoft, or is it looking to inspire other distributions with the hope of getting sued? I sure want to know. Because if it is the latter, I have better things to do with my computer than to channel their inspiring message, like use it without having to double-check that none of its software is on shaky legal ground.

They can promote their product without “harming [its] image”. It should be a no-brainer that if they want large, corporate customers, then giving them reason to hesitate is a bad thing. The legal standing of Mono gives them a reason to hesitate. Hello!

It was not that long ago that other names were more synonymous with Linux than Ubuntu, like Red Hat, Debian and even Slackware. Things change. They can still change again.

I have removed all mono applications and dependencies and installed mononnono. I also enabled the Ubuntu statistics so they can clearly see mono is not part of my system. The more people who do that, will send a very clear message.

The developers can use whatever tools they prefer, doesn’t mean we have to use them.

I’ve looked at the mono software, Tomboy, F-Spot, Banshee, and Gnome Do, and don’t understand how anyone could consider these apps to be critical.

Before analysing the mono debate myself, i never once used these programs and i’ve been using Ubuntu for 3 years. For something so irrelevant, why does it have to fill my hardrive with useless crap i don’t need?

Put the programs in the repositories for people to download if they want. Just don’t shove it down our throats.

I just don’t understand why anyone would choose to use Mono, much less why anyone would sanction its use. It isn’t as though Mono is necessarily compatible with Windows. The Windows compatiblity layer on top of the standardized .NET stack isn’t even implemented in Mono (and won’t be for fear of litigation), so apps must still be ported to Windows anyway.

And for those of you who despise Microsoft, you should know that pushing Mono on any platform gives Microsoft the political advantage of being able to claim that its technology is superior and that it plays nice with open source.

Just use Python and Java or, if you enjoy pain, C. But then I guess that if we all did this, we’d spend too much time getting work done and we wouldn’t be able to waste countless hours on these ridiculous political debates.