Mono (Re: New Programs for Hardy?)

[Joel Bryan Juliano]

On 12/12/07, Conrad Knauer <atheoi at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Nov 28, 2007 4:49 AM, Colin Watson <cjwatson at ubuntu.com> wrote:
>
> > We are always looking for more ways to reduce CD size so that we can fit
> > more things on the CD [...] There are various other targets of opportunity
> > [...] that we'll be looking into as well.
>
> OK, at the risk of stirring up a hornet's nest, I note the suggestion on
> http://lost-midnight.blogspot.com/2007/12/remove-mono-dependancy-from-ubuntu.html
>
> ---
> There has been a wide range of discussion on the subject of Mono and
> its inclusion in Ubuntu by default. Some people believe that Mono may
> infringe on Microsoft patents while others believe that it is useful
> to include. Personally, I have no idea about whether Mono does
> infringe on Microsoft patents, but I see other reasons why Ubuntu
> should remove it.
>
> Mono by default takes 48MB of space on the CD. The ISO download is
> 690+ MB. Therefore, it is taking up valuable space that could be used
> for a whole host of other things. Also, for that 48MB, there are just
> two applications which use Mono. These are F-spot (photo manager) and
> Tomboy (note application). Ubuntu also includes two other programs
> which do a similar job, gThumb (photo manager) and GNOME sticky notes.
>
> In my opinion, these two applications function well enough to warrant
> the removal of Mono dependent programs.
> ---
>
> You might want to fact-check the disk space claim, but if that's the
> case, its a good point totally irrespective of the 'Java Trap'
> (http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/java-trap.html) type scenarios I've
> read (http://www.gnome.org/~seth/blog/mono) about Mono.
>
> Sincerely,
> Conrad Knauer
>

Albert Einstein once said "Make everything as simple as possible, but
not simpler", and this simple wisdom was proved by Linus Torvalds on
his strong opinions about Gnome, what I think what he really means is
"display capabilities and functionality as simple as possible, but
Gnome was literally making things simpler by displaying simple things
much more simpler", well, we don't talk to a kid the same way we talk
to adults, that would be really abnormal, and annoying, (ie. what's
the spelling dude, it's A, repeat after me, B.. C..). Well as for
removing Mono, I think it's definitely not an option to be put on the
table, because dependent applications with it are essentials that
provides many capabilities and functionalities, that are simple and
easy to use. Removing it would seems to be a very "abnormal" decision.