Linux.com

One should avoid installing F-Spot on one's pc because it infects it with patent-encumbered Mono-crap.

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That has to be the silliest of reasons as to why one would not install it.

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I prefer not to encourage the use of Mono. To me, Mono is like Samba. I'm thankful that we have it, but wish to the gods that we didn't need it. Mono is good for compatibility with MS stuff. But I don't think that it is wise to rely on it for infrastructure, or common Linux applications. I know that many make the argument that it is actually safe from a legal standpoint. And they may even be right. But that's irrelevant. As the perpetual, and ridiculous SCO saga so clearly shows, one does not have to have a good case to generate a great deal of fear uncertainty and doubt. SCO is and was a bit player with not very deep pockets. Can you imagine what a well funded opponent could do in the case of Mono, where we can't even deny that we reimplemented Microsoft technology? Microsoft wants .net to become ubiquitous, and we need to be prepared for the scenario in which it does. But once it has achieved critical mass, you can bet that they will be ready to hit the kill switch regarding third party implementations, because they want to own the whole market. They would likely not actually launch a legal attack, but bring to bear all of the fear, uncertainty, and doubt tactics that their richly funded PR department could muster.

Now, aside from that, Mono is a memory hog. And I have yet to see the programmer productivity benefits that are supposed to be its claim to fame actually play out in the real world. Just look at Beagle vs Tracker. How did a small group of developers with no corporate sponsorship and who got a late start, writing in C, manage to catch up with, and surpass Novell's premier Mono-based project, which even had the core of their software, the indexer, handed to them on a silver platter in the form of Apache Lucene, which only had to be ported from Java to C#?

Other than for a certain "Samba-like" MS compatibility factor, I see no real advantages to FOSS projects using Mono.

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Mono. Definitely a good reason to avoid it. Just because Miguel likes the kool-aid doesn't mean everyone else should drink it.

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Another great video, Chad. How'd you do your screencasts? They're terrific!

Lisa

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I agree..mono should be avoided, its patent encumbered ( Redhat wont even use it so come on people! wake up ** AND just remember the novel/M$ deal , for which novel is paying patents until what 2011 ?? ) 'and buggy' as well, not to mention bugs that the core team WONT FIX ( checkout fspot bugs at launchpad at UBUNTU. Just use and enhance gthumb &/or gqview , maybe consider bluemarine too as noted by a current linux.com article.

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I agree..mono should be avoided, its patent encumbered ( Redhat wont even use it so come on people! wake up ** AND just remember the novel/M$ deal , for which novel is paying patents until what 2011 ?? ) 'and buggy' as well, not to mention bugs that the core team WONT FIX ( checkout fspot bugs at launchpad at UBUNTU. Just use and enhance gthumb &/or gqview , maybe consider bluemarine too as noted by a current linux.com article.

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@Lisa

I used a combination of recordmydesktop (gtk version), audacity, a few ffmpeg scripts, and kino. recordmydesktop did most of the heavy lifting.

@Non-Monoers

I completely get the patent concerns with Mono, they are well founded. However, the issue brings up one of the wonderful things about the OSS community; if the tool does not fit you needs/desires/beliefs you are free to change it or create a new one completely. The concepts in the video can be done with other tools, that do not run on Mono.

@Anonymous [ip: 98.203.150.239]

Mono and F-Spot are used by Red Hat (in the Fedora project); at least they were a few versions ago. With honest and all due respect, another wonderful thing about open-source software is that we all have access to the code. If a bug needs to be fixed, roll-up your sleeves and dig in.

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@chat
NO ONE seems to want to address the fact that redhat does not endorse mono..get over it and use something else unless we agree all of a sudden that :

a: redhat is no longer a viable company therefore we shouldn not care what they have to say, or
b: overnight the threat is no longer valid , so issue is moot.

if neither are applicable, mono remains a problem and sticking head in sand wont solve anything.

cu

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"redhat is no longer a viable company" -- Wow, now *this* was trolling :)

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