Microsoft donates the Mono Project to the Wine team (www.gamingonlinux.com)
from Lanky_Pomegranate530@midwest.social to linux@lemmy.ml on 28 Aug 2024 06:00
https://midwest.social/post/16246605

#linux

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bufalo1973@lemmy.ml on 28 Aug 2024 06:08 next collapse

Donates or “donates”? As “all yours” or as in “it’s ours but you do the work”?

anamethatisnt@lemmy.world on 28 Aug 2024 06:08 next collapse

As in
“We’ve finished taking all we need from the Mono project and implemented it into our proprietary .NET implementation for Linux, Android and iOS. Instead of getting flack for killing off Mono (which is open source and would’ve been forked anyways) we graciously give this old husk to the Wine project. We recommend that active Mono users and maintainers of Mono-based app frameworks migrate to .NET. kthnxbye!”

Good thing that it went to Wine I guess, as they do lots of work to get old Windows programs up and running in Linux and that often involves Mono.

morrowind@lemmy.ml on 28 Aug 2024 06:19 next collapse

.Net is open source bruh, it’s not proprietary

anamethatisnt@lemmy.world on 28 Aug 2024 06:27 collapse

I stand corrected, .NET Core is open source and uses the MIT License.

LeFantome@programming.dev on 29 Aug 2024 02:32 collapse

It is not “.NET Core” anymore though. Since version 5, it has just been “.NET”. The current version is 8 with previews of 9 available.

woodgen@lemm.ee on 28 Aug 2024 06:24 next collapse

It’s MIT and actually a fork of Mono. Reading the article helps.

github.com/dotnet/core

github.com/dotnet/runtime

Vivendi@lemmy.zip on 28 Aug 2024 17:26 collapse

Oh what’s that? Some rational thought in my ramblings? Nah we can’t have that in this sublemmy champ

SatyrSack@lemmy.one on 28 Aug 2024 08:52 next collapse

Good thing that it went to Wine I guess, as they do lots of work to get old Windows programs up and running in Linux and that often involves Mono.

I see this as the main purpose of this transfer of ownership. When it comes to developing new software, MS has their modern tech stack for creating cross-compatible code, and the recommendation is to use that. But that is not helpful when trying to get old legacy software running on a modern system. So MS is giving this “outdated” technology to the WINE team. A team whose primary goal is getting incompatible software to run in the “wrong” environment. This should allow WINE to continue to properly handle older Mono software for the foreseeable future.

LeFantome@programming.dev on 29 Aug 2024 02:30 collapse

You are completely correct. The good news is that the “official” .NET is Open Source now and far better than the “Mono Project” ever was.

GammaGames@beehaw.org on 28 Aug 2024 07:12 collapse

as in “your fork is official now, we have our own compatability in .net and there’s no need to maintain it”

The recognition is nice, but there hadn’t been a major release in over 5 years. I’d guess the outcome is mostly paperwork

MonkeMischief@lemmy.today on 28 Aug 2024 06:27 next collapse

Okay, a suspicious thanks to you, Microsoft…

…So when can we get this treatment for WMR so all our VR headsets don’t become useless bricks kthaaaanks!

NateNate60@lemmy.world on 28 Aug 2024 06:33 next collapse

What are the implications of this?

embed_me@programming.dev on 28 Aug 2024 07:56 collapse

Not much. There used to be this fear of Microsoft copyrighting Mono for reimplementing their stuff on Linux. For that reason, Mono was avoided by linux app developers. But since MS had acquired the company that made and developed Mono and they have also open-sourced .NET and everything, this does not mean much.

Dirk@lemmy.ml on 28 Aug 2024 09:34 collapse

For that reason, Mono was avoided by linux app developers. But since MS had acquired the company that made and developed Mono

“You don’t like it? Fine then, we buy it and force it on you!”

Classic Microshit.

finley@lemm.ee on 28 Aug 2024 08:20 next collapse

And that’s how you know it’s worthless

noxfriend@beehaw.org on 28 Aug 2024 08:52 next collapse

Does Mono have any purpose any longer? What is the point now that dotnet core is so well-established?

domi@lemmy.secnd.me on 28 Aug 2024 12:44 collapse

Yes, Mono is used by Wine to support Windows .NET applications since it’s a) open source and b) contains support for Windows Forms and other Windows-only APIs.

They can’t ship the regular .NET framework by default for licensing reasons but it can be installed with winetricks to replace Mono, which is sometimes necessary for compatibility reasons.

noxfriend@beehaw.org on 29 Aug 2024 14:21 collapse

Thanks!

0x0@programming.dev on 28 Aug 2024 09:48 next collapse

Repost of programming.dev/post/18652552

smeg@feddit.uk on 28 Aug 2024 13:03 next collapse

It’s not a repost if it’s in a different community

delirious_owl@discuss.online on 28 Aug 2024 14:48 collapse

What’s the difference? Thanks for sharing the repost. It let’s us see the comments in both communities

0x0@programming.dev on 28 Aug 2024 15:50 collapse

What’s the difference?

Technicalities… it has been cross-posted, i hadn’t noticed it.

0x0@programming.dev on 28 Aug 2024 15:52 collapse

However

possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip on 28 Aug 2024 13:44 collapse

This is a different community all together

melroy@kbin.melroy.org on 28 Aug 2024 11:08 next collapse

What is happening?

possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip on 28 Aug 2024 16:53 collapse

Microsoft donated mono to the wine project

melroy@kbin.melroy.org on 28 Aug 2024 17:33 collapse

Yea I know. But I still can't believe it.

Microsoft finally sees they can't code.

LeFantome@programming.dev on 29 Aug 2024 02:36 collapse

No.

Microsoft maintains what is essentially the “real” version of Mono within their official .NET project. It is up to version 8.

The version of Mono represents by “The Mono Project” still targets .NET Framework ( stuck on version 4.x for years now ). Microsoft does not care about the real version, nevermind the Open Source replica.

What Microsoft is “donating” is pure legacy. It is a good fit for Wine though.

Charadon@lemmy.sdf.org on 28 Aug 2024 13:17 next collapse

“”“donates”“”

possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip on 28 Aug 2024 13:44 next collapse

Well that was unexpected

drwho@beehaw.org on 28 Aug 2024 16:06 next collapse

Ew.

jaypatelani@lemmy.ml on 28 Aug 2024 17:07 collapse

Technical debt is transferred to Wine team.

Templa@beehaw.org on 28 Aug 2024 17:15 collapse

They were already maintaining a fork of it though?

LeFantome@programming.dev on 29 Aug 2024 02:28 collapse

The “fork” is the real version of Mono and Microsoft is not giving it up.

The repository managed by “The Mono Project” still targets .NET Framework. Microsoft does not care about the official version of that. Why would they want to manage an Open Source replica of it.

In some ways though, this is good. Nobody should be seeing the Mono Project as a viable cross-platform development framework at this point. It is nothing more than a support layer for running legacy software that was originally Windows only. That makes it a good fit for Wine.

If you want what Mono used to be, a cross-platform application framework, you can just use the actual .NET from Microsoft. It includes the Mono runtime for targeting mobile platforms and Microsoft continues to actively develop it. They are not passing control of that to anybody.