Patented Languages

Software Freedom Law Show episode 0x11

July 7, 2009

Bradley and Karen discuss the community debate regarding C# and Mono, and its inclusion in GNU/Linux distributions.

Running time: 00:37:23.

Karen pointed out that some of the recent arguments about C# started due to RMS' statements on the matter. Others have also blogged. (04:24)
Bradley mentioned the launch of the DotGNU project (04:30), which included Portable.NET (05:04)
Bradley mentioned that C# descends from J++ work inside Microsoft, which became a point of contention between Sun and Microsoft. (06:50)
Bradley mentioned his blog post that has the same topic as this podcast. (11:17)
Meanwhile, back at the point is a reference to LUG Radio, which is based on the phrase Meanwhile, back at the ranch. The origins of the latter phrase is likely unclear, although an unsourced Wikipedia article claims it was a phrase frequently used by narrators of black & white American cowboy movies and TV shows of the 1940s and 1950s. (12:18)
Bjarne Stroustrup (15:09) published his first article on C++ in February 1983 (15:21). His paper on C++ history tells the story of its creation.

Bradley mentioned John Case, his Theory of Computation professor from graduate school, who always does proofs by “cases” (16:32).
Bradley and Karen mentioned they used to have the SFLC phone system hooked up to Zoip. (17:39)
Bradley mentioned that we should End Software Patents.(20:35)
Bradley mentioned the TomTom case, which he's blogged about and was the topic of Episode 0x0B. (26:15)
Debian now includes Mono in its base install (28:03), and Ubuntu published a position statement, which Karen read from in the show (26:30). There is an Ubuntu wiki page opposing it. Fedora has included it for some time.
Bradley mentioned AT&T antitrust divestiture. (30:10)
Bradley mentioned that very few companies have made an overreaching promise to licenses all their patents in a way acceptable for Free Software. Red Hat is one of them, although their promise isn't perfect, it has some value. (33:34)

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