[KLUG Advocacy] Another interessting article

[Adam Williams]

> > THE CORE OF .NET IS AN ECMA STANDARD!!!!!
> > And there is nothing platform-centric about .Net, crack a
> > stinkin' book.
> The trouble is that Microsoft is extending .Net in whatever
> direction it pleases, and can/will patent some of those extensions.

Sure,  but their are proprietary extensions to everything.  Because a 
binary propietary module exists for the Linux kernel does not a 
proprietary kernel make.  The core (and more) of .Net is open,  and 
protected from proprietorization.  Certainly enough of it is open to be 
VERY useful.

> No open implementation will be able to be 100% Microsoft-compatible,
> thanks to the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office.

You are correct.

BUT - the existence (of two) Open Source implementations of .Net DOES 
create a disinsentive for proprietorization, or at least the adoption of 
proprietary extensions in an application.  Alot of companies have come out 
and said, and some have delivered, that they really want their 
applications to be available on the Linux platform.  So they can build a 
.Net application, and without really any great sacrifice, make it 
available.  Sometimes playing-along is the best way to make a game more 
fair.