Standardization is NOT indemnification. I see nothing concrete proving that Microsoft can’t go ater people who use Mono just because it’s covered in ECMA.

Last I checked, neither ECMA nor ISO require a standard to be patent-free, for example, and they both have “realms” for enforceable standards involving patents.

I ask the Monopologists to explain how .NET is any safer just because it is part of ECMA when ECMA has no power or authority to STOP Microsoft from patent trolling. How does .NET being an ECMA standard magically make .NET implementations like Mono safe?

The answer is simple: They just don’t. Standards organizations simply outline how implementations should be done for something to be called “standard.” Standards organizations don’t exist to provide safety from patents, trademarks, and copyrights. There is NOTHING. NOT ONE THING. That can stop Microsoft from suing the pants off of a project using Mono or even Mono itself. I thing the only things stopping Microsoft from targetting Mono projects outright are:

1. Their agreement (Boo! Hiss!) with Novell indemnifying Mono ONLY AS FAR AS NOVELL SOFTWARE USES IT. Microsoft can’t target Mono directly according to its agreement. And it can’t target GNOME or anything else actually under the Novell umbrella. But that’s where the indemnification stops, and this is something Monopologists consistently forget or deliberately ignore: Mono is still unsafe! Why? Because the second you make a project using Mono, and it’s NOT as someone who works for Novell, you’re actually using Mono illegally. As I said, Monopologists like to overlook this, and I think sometimes deliberately.

2. No significant non-Novell projects use Novell, likely because they are aware of fact 1. I say BIG PROJECTS, not ambitious tiny crap that won’t really take off as “standard a la Rhythmbox and Amarok” like Banshee.

3. Microsoft swatting at a non-Novell Mono project assures that they can ONLY take down one project, as the other Mono projects would quickly become NON-Mono projects and keep on developing. And because of fact 2. Microsoft has no projects worth scuttling the rest of the Mono deathtrap for.

4. Most chilling: Microsoft is aware of facts 1, 2, and 3. What they are waiting for is some clueless highly-upstream developer to suddenly include Mono in a non-Novell project that almost every Linux user takes advantage of, like, for example, Xorg or a very commonly used video driver.

This is why I don’t use anything with Mono on it, Novell-ran or not. I don’t want Microsoftware on my Linux installation.