Miguel de Icaza speaks on why he is leading an open source project to implement Microsoft's .NET development framework on Linux. Mono was unveiled recently, and promises to provide an alternative toolchain and execution environment for .NET developers. It'll run on Linux and Windows first, but should be portable to almost any platform. It's currently being developed on Solaris.

Miguel de Icaza speaks on why he is leading an open source project to implement Microsoft's .NET development framework on Linux. Mono was unveiled recently, and promises to provide an alternative toolchain and execution environment for .NET developers. It'll run on Linux and Windows first, but should be portable to almost any platform. It's currently being developed on Solaris.

"EPM is a software packaging tool for all versions of UNIX that generates software and patch distributions in various formats, including rpm and deb ... EPM also includes a graphical "setup" program that can be provided with your distributions to make installation of more than one package a snap."

"EPM is a software packaging tool for all versions of UNIX that generates software and patch distributions in various formats, including rpm and deb ... EPM also includes a graphical "setup" program that can be provided with your distributions to make installation of more than one package a snap."

"Through 2005 and beyond, we believe OSDBs (Open source databases) will be a non-factor in the database management system (DBMS) market, relegated to non-critical tasks (such as clickstream logging and directories)... Open source database companies will not be able to compete with the price, performance, maturity, and functionality of the commercial vendors."

"Through 2005 and beyond, we believe OSDBs (Open source databases) will be a non-factor in the database management system (DBMS) market, relegated to non-critical tasks (such as clickstream logging and directories)... Open source database companies will not be able to compete with the price, performance, maturity, and functionality of the commercial vendors."

Microsoft's comments have branded open source as anti-American and destructive to intellectual property, but IBM, which has recently become an outspoken proponent of open source, says Microsoft is swimming against the tide.

Microsoft's comments have branded open source as anti-American and destructive to intellectual property, but IBM, which has recently become an outspoken proponent of open source, says Microsoft is swimming against the tide.

"In this scenario, if you don't trust the application's vendor you can discard their finished program, look through their source code, then recompile it to your own satisfaction. In this way security holes can be detected much quicker, too, the code being examined by a whole developer community instead of just a single vendor."

"So who's calling whose bluff? An intriguing game of chicken is enveloping Microsoft's plans to port its C# language and run-time to BSD, with software libre leaders vowing to give the Beast a taste of its own embrace n' extend medicine."