ZDNet: Mono & .Net: The Odd Couple

“In the Brazilian martial art capoeira, it can be hard to tell
if the participants are fighting or dancing. Players cooperate and
compete, and spend as much energy trying to impress the crowd and
one-up each other as they do in combat.

“Microsoft’s earlier response to open source was less subtle and
more combative. But lately it looks like the relationship is
evolving into a productive balance, more dance than fight.

“Just last week Mono launched a new version of its software,
based on the C# and CLI portions of .Net standard Microsoft
submitted to ECMA and ISO. Microsoft published and opened just the
APIs for .Net–what the software is supposed to do, not how it does
it. Because .Net is a standard, both sides are able to avoid some
of the pitfalls of arguing about source visibility. It is a major
step forward from Microsoft’s earlier stance, and it opens the door
for others to build competing yet compatible implementations of the
.Net API.

“And people are coming through that open door…”

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