On Fri, 2010-10-01 at 23:42 +0100, Nathan Rixham wrote:
> tedd wrote:
> > Hi gang:
> >
> > What do you people think of the .NET framework?
> >
> > Please provide your thoughts as to cost, maintenance, benefit, and
> > whatever else you think important.
>
> .NET is loaded up with patents and pretty much Microsoft only, however
> that said it is rather good. Previous versions of C# (1/2) are
> standardized under ECMA-Script 334 and 335 which covers a lot of .NET
> however doesn't include asp.net, ado.net and windows forms - thus a nice
> open source implementation and platform is quite common now, namely
> Mono, this is .net compatible and has good support/development and has
> been used for everything from the unity game engine through to sims 3.
> Might be worth having a quick look at DotGNU and portable.net (as well
> as mod_mono for apache http - which supports as.net pages etc).
>
> Might be worth noting that Stallman (as in Richard Stallman from FSF)
> doesn't recommend using it because he's thinks MS will come with the
> patent trolls soon, however microsoft has effectively tied themselves in
> to a patent non assert ("community promise") which would prevent this.
>
> Also worth having a look at "M" for something different/interesting/from
> microsoft, and also OData which is a nice RESTful protocol.
>
> Best,
>
> Nathan
>
>
I'd like to add a little there. Although the Mono project is great, it
is always left a step behind, because Microsoft has a tendency to
release newer features of .Net that the Mono developers have to play
catch-up with.
Like Paul mentioned, it's probably not safe to let yourself be tied in
to a closed format, even if it has open parts. One only has to look back
a few years to find more examples of companies losing data because it
was locked into an old format, or being stuck with old and obsolete
versions of software because the company that makes it stopped writing
it, or went bust. This sort of thing doesn't really happen with OSS,
because there is always a community ready to take up the projects.
Thanks,
Ash
http://www.ashleysheridan.co.uk
