Ok, firstly I’m going to say I’m a C# developer, so partially biased, although I do think my views are quite fair. I’m only a C# developer by profession (from Java). I only use Linux at home, C# is purely for web development.
Right with that out of the way now I can get to commenting on Richard Stallman’s opinions regarding Mono. We should systematically arrange to depend on the free C# implementations as little as possible. In other words, we should discourage people from writing programs in C#. Therefore, we should not include C# implementations in the default installation of GNU/Linux distributions, and we should distribute and recommend non-C# applications rather than comparable C# applications whenever possible.
For me there are many things wrong with this opinion. Ok, so the patents issue is a touchy one, but “encouraging” people not to use C# is just restricting the open source movement, innovation, and competitiveness. In terms of development, you couldn’t be putting a more negative signal out there.
Banshee is a good example of a Mono project. Developers for it may well be suited to C# (they came from C#, or switched from Java) so can’t easily switch to another language. However, the Banshee project is moving on very quickly, especially compared with Rhythmbox. It brings new ideas to the table, and pushes Rhythmbox to keep up. That’s a good thing.
Ok, so we don’t want a world of just C# developers, and just Mono apps, but we shouldn’t be discouraging them from writing good apps like Banshee and Gnome-Do.
If they do disappear for whatever reason, then you just migrate to another app. It’s not difficult, much like how people migrate from Windows to Linux everyday.
And finally, Mono won’t disappear overnight. If anything will it ever disappear? Will Microsoft be able to control it, I doubt so. It’ll just go underground, much like XBMC survived all these years. And it’ll still be actively developed, and you’ll still be able to run all your Mono apps.
I couldn’t be without my Linux Mint, but at the same time I recognise a good development platform, and innovative open source projects. People need to get off the “hate Microsoft bandwagon”, and instead of living in “Micorosft is *probably* planning to force all free C# implementations underground”, actually enjoy the software out there and how it’s not only developing, but other apps are developing around it.
End of rant.
UPDATE:
The Ubuntu technical board have spoken. So it seems they are quite happy to include Mono in Ubuntu, and I’m glad for it.
Mainly because I like Gnome-Do. Banshee is very good, but I’m still torn between Songbird, Rhythmbox and Banshee. None of them really fulfil what I want. Songbird lacks usb support for mp3 players, and is a bit slowly for my collection (25,000+). Banshee doesn’t have a Genre filter, nor “watch music directory”, and it too is a little slow to load up. Rhythmbox loads up nice and fast, but just feels a bit old, and the UI isn’t the best. I really like the Last.fm and Songkick add-ons for Songbird.
F-spot still has some way to go. It’s annoying that the Flickr exporting isn’t working properly. If it was, I’d be using it a lot more.
So for now I solely rely on Gnome-Do when it comes to Mono. But there are apps that are close, but no cigar just yet.