Re: [DotGNU](slashdot) Microsoft dumps hailstorm ?

[Barry Fitzgerald]

Rhys Weatherley wrote:
> 
> Norbert Bollow wrote:
> 
> > It's pretty significant news for me.  The threat of Hailstorm
> > was one of the major reasons that prompted me to commit to the
> > DotGNU project in the beginning.
> 
> Perhaps, but "Hailstorm" per se was never the real threat.
> It's the technology behind it.  That technology remains,
> even though the service doesn't.  MS is looking to repackage
> the technology and resell it to others to turn into services.
> 
> So, there is still the possibility that they will establish a
> de facto proprietry standard for Web services technologies
> and starve everyone else out.  This still needs to be fought.
> 


I agree completely.  DotGNU stands on it's own merits as a project.  An
MS change in strategy in no way effects our goals, IMO, unless we have
to counter that strategy because it could harm Free Software.  There is
still a need for secure authentication to counter those services
available on the market and certainly the underlying technology is key.  

Microsoft will be pushing a LOT in IL.  To even keep up with IL
execution models and related libraries would allow people to run MS
Windows apps natively on GNU/Linux - which may or may not be a good
thing from different perspectives.  From my perspective - this breaks
down part of the software barrier that keeps GNU/Linux from widespread
adoption at this particular moment.  If we can keep up with them on the
CLI/CLR front, it's a coup d'etat for Free Software Operating Systems in
the future.  This scenario even disregards potential threats to Free
Software inherent in their strategy.  Certainly, these threats must be
countered before we can meet with success.  However, it illustrates the
value of projects like DotGNU Portable.Net even without an adversarial
component.

        -Barry