CyberTech Rambler

When news broke that Attachment is prun Novell’s staffs, my first reaction is that is a sad but expected news. Unlike others, I did not immediately associate this with the Mono project nor the fate of its lead, Miguel De Icaza. However, when I saw the headline that Attachmate is laying off Mono  employees, my thought immediately turn to De Icaza.

Professionally as a developer and team leader, I do not think he will have a problem finding another job. That is the only comfort I have. I am sure he will tell us what he plans to do in this post-Novell era when the time if right (for him). The only thing I can do is to wait for the news and wish him all the best.

For Mono employees, I do hope that Microsoft follows Bob Sutor’s advice and hire them. For the Mono project, besides the employees, Microsoft has the most to lose. For one, it is the only viable enterprise solution for the .Net framework on non-Microsoft platform. Its importance to Microsoft is it lend credbility to the claim that .NET platform is not a single-vendor platform.

If Mono project does go in the tank, a lot of people who rely on it or champion its use will find it bad news. Some in the open source community will tell the world that  they had been predicting its demise and it is bad to rely on one single vendor. Those who make those comments are either naive or divorse from reality. In real life, as developer, you examine, evaluate and finally choose the technology that best suit your purpose at the time. Once you decided on the technology,  you are effectively taking a gamble that it will serve you. That is true regardless of whether you are using open or closed source software.

I do not hide the fact that I do not think the project is good for open source in the long run, but  I share Bradley Kuhn thought and reasoning on why Mono developers losing jobs is not good for all of us, regardless of whether you are for open source or closed source.