t3g wrote: > I don't get what you are trying to show with that image. Those seem > like a list of existing technologies which may or may not be open > now. The hope with the foundation is that we can finally use free > software to build and deploy without worry.
The image doesn't mention the .NET runtime at all, or anything that would enable end-users to run a .NET application with only free software. Microsoft hasn't committed to software freedom in relation to .NET or anything else. The optimistic side of me suggests that maybe .NET could become like Java in the future, in the sense that most users will be running a proprietary runtime on Windows (like the version of Java that Oracle distributes) but perhaps it will be possible to run some .NET programs in freedom (like OpenJDK). The pessimistic side of me says that Microsoft will "open source" some of their compiler code for pragmatic reasons - to attract developers, developers, developers - and end-users will still need to run proprietary software for 99.9% of .NET applications, except for the few applications that are specifically programmed to run on Mono. But that is mere speculation. At the moment I think the contribution is fairly meaningless for the free software community. </rant> Andrew.
