Open Source Landmark: Mono Freed at Last?

"The move was greeted with excitement by Mono developers and distributors, but others are treating the news with caution and waiting for detailed legal opinions.

"The debate over Mono has been complicated by accusations and irrelevancies on both sides. However, the main issue in the debate has always been the parts of the .NET Framework used by Mono that fall under ECMA standards covered by patents.

"These parts include the form and interpretation of C#, which is covered by ECMA 334 specifications, and the Common Language Infrastructure, which is covered by ECMA 335 specifications.

"Neither parts of .NET not implemented in Mono, such as ADO.NET, ASP.NET and Windows.Forms, nor libraries developed by Mono specifically for GNU/Linux, have ever been affected by these or any other patents, according to Mono's Licensing FAQ. However, the affected parts have been more than enough for sections of the free software community to reject Mono, or at least to treat it cautiously."

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