TechWeb: Microsoft Gives Blessing To Open-Source .NET, But Analyst Smells A Rat

Jul 11, 2001, 18:25 (94 Talkback[s])
(Other stories by Mitch Wagner)

Though Microsoft's apparently pleased with Mono, calling it a "ringing endorsement of .NET," IDC's Dan Kusnetzky isn't feeling horribly sanguine about the project, saying it's mostly good for Microsoft, which will reap the PR rewards of looking inclusive as its case continues to work through the courts.

"...Microsoft's support of Mono is simply the same old same old for the software giant, IDC analyst Dan Kusnetzky said. Microsoft has historically achieved market dominance by controlling APIs, and forcing competitors to write software to its APIs, only to turn around and change those same APIs. "Instead of satisfying their own customers' demand, competitors are busy catching up with Microsoft," Kusnetzky said. "It looks like they've gotten someone in the open source community to play the game of following Microsoft around and trying to do what they do."

That leaves the Mono project--which takes its name from the Spanish word for "monkey"--playing a deadly game of monkey see, monkey do."

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