Tim Anderson's ITWriting

October 24, 2003

No PDC Birds of a feather for Mono

I was disappointed that Miguel de Icaza's proposed Mono BOF session was not selected by the PDC organizers. Maybe the BOFs that were selected simply made a better case, but it raises the question of Microsoft's attitude to Mono and whether it is friend, foe, or somewhere in between. I know that Microsoft cooperates with the Mono folk and I am sure that many individuals in the company appreciate what is being done. At the same time, there is an argument that says, "these guys are taking our best ideas and giving them to Linux".

If that was a factor, I can understand it; at the same time I wonder if Microsoft realises what a huge potential PR win it has in Mono. Let's say a company is debating internally about whether to develop for .Net or J2EE. The Java guys will say, "we are cross-platform, we are not locked to a single vendor." Mono is an answer to that. In other words, Microsoft has far more to gain thatn to lose if Mono prospers; it even pays to keep PDC attendees well-informed about Mono and its remarkable progress. Another example: I'm aware of C++ developers who will not touch C# because it runs only on Windows.

Mono is no threat to Redmond. The ideal scenario for Microsoft is that .Net runs well everwhere but best on Windows. That's the sort of challenge Microsoft should relish rather than resist.