Contents - Cultural View

Comparison of the Java and .NET platforms 94
.NET
Microsoft's .NET CLI executable environment, and some of the corresponding class library, have been
standardized and can be freely implemented without a license. A few standards-compliant free software
environments have been implemented, such as the Mono Project and DotGNU. The Mono Project has also
implemented many of Microsoft's non-standard libraries by examining Microsoft materials, similar to GNU
Classpath and Java.
Microsoft is currently distributing a shared source version of its .NET runtime environment for academic use,
however it is only supported on Windows XP SP2 and has not been updated after .NET 2.0. [7]
The Mono project aims to avoid infringing on any patents or copyrights, and to the extent that they are successful,
the project can be safely distributed and used under the GPL. On November 2, 2006, Microsoft and Novell
announced a joint agreement whereby Microsoft promised not to sue Novell or its customers for patent
infringement. [8] According to a statement on the blog of Mono project leader Miguel de Icaza, this agreement only
extends to Mono for Novell developers and users. [9] Because of the possible threat of Microsoft patents, the FSF
[10] [11]
recommends that people avoid creating software that depends on Mono or C#.
The Microsoft/Novell agreement was criticized by some in the open source community because it violates the
principles of giving equal rights to all users of a particular program (see Agreement with Microsoft and Mono and
Microsoft's patents).
In response to the Microsoft/Novell agreement the Free Software Foundation revised its GNU General Public
License to close the loophole used by Microsoft and Novell to bypass the GPL's very restrictive provisions on patent
deals. [12] The FSF also stated that by selling coupons for Novell's Linux software, the mechanism by which
Microsoft circumvented the GNU license, it considers Microsoft to be a Linux vendor, and thereby subject to the full
terms and conditions laid out in the GPL. [12] (Microsoft issued the coupons because on the patent deal worked out
between the two companies Novell's network patents were considered far more profitable to Microsoft than
Microsoft's .NET patents were to Novell.)
Community
In its proprietorship of Java, Sun works with an open culture, allowing multiple parties, from organizations to
individuals, to steer the decision making process. Sun retains exclusive and unlimited legal rights to its Java
intellectual properties, and the Java community is subject to those rights.
Sun's acceptance of third-party contributions goes to solve the problem of vendor lock-in at the cost of sometimes
creating a baffling array of options for beginners wishing to choose a Java-based solution. Java has grown in
popularity to become one of the most popular languages of the early 21st century, and the pluralist nature of its
development has resulted in many different groups tackling the same (or similar) problems. This issue is particularly
acute in the Enterprise space (web/Ajax/Web2.0 applications), where one must not only be familiar with Java, but
also the various competing frameworks.
While Microsoft has developed C# and .NET without a formal community contribution system, the language and
some parts of the executable format and runtime have been standardized and freely distributed through Ecma and
ISO in an open and vendor-neutral process, rather than a process that retains veto and copy rights for Microsoft.
However, the standards do not include many new libraries that Microsoft has implemented on top of the standard
framework (see Standardization). Numerous C# and CLI community software projects, help and documentation
sites, and discussion forums are under active development and maintenance, including those focusing on Windows
development with Microsoft .NET or the Mono project, Free software Operating system development under the
Mono project, and mobile development using Microsoft's .NET compact framework..
Microsoft is distributing a shared source release (version 1.0) of the .NET virtual machine that can be compiled and
used on Windows, FreeBSD, Mac OS X, and other platforms. [13] An updated version (2.0) is currently available, but