● 03.24.09

●● The Mono Trap

Posted in GPL, Microsoft, Mono, Novell, SLES/SLED at 9:11 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Summary: How Mono can interfere with the GNU GPL, along with freedoms the GPL protects

A few days ago, Richard Stallman wrote about “the JavaScript trap,” but what about Mono?

Let us look at Mono licensing again. According to the Mono Web site:

We use three open source licenses: * The C# compiler is dual-licensed under the MIT/X11 license and the GNU General Public License (http://www.opensource.org/licenses/gpl-license.html) (GPL). * The tools are released under the terms of the GNU General Public License (http://www.opensource.org/licenses/gpl-license.html) (GPL). * The runtime libraries are under the GNU Library GPL 2.0 (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/library.html#TOC1) (LGPL 2.0). * The class libraries are released under the terms of the MIT X11 (http://www.opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.html) license.

One reader asks, “can I download the full Mono source code and under what license?”

Since Novell controls development, what would be the point? And moreover, as this reader indicates, “the point is, if Mono isn’t GPL then neither can the apps. [...] Can I recompile that [Mono-based] app without Mono?”

It is worth remembering what Novell achieves with SUSE. █

Share in other sites/networks: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.

Permalink  Send this to a friend

----------

➮ Sharing is caring. Content is available under CC-BY-SA.