Well, this is surprising isn't it? Microsoft are handing over the Mono Project to the Wine developers with a thank you note.
  • bufalo1973@lemmy.ml
    621·
    2 months ago

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

    • anamethatisnt@lemmy.world
      896·
      2 months ago

      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.

        • Vivendi@lemmy.zip
          25·
          2 months ago

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

      • SatyrSack@lemmy.one
        181·
        2 months ago

        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 So MS is giving this “outdated” technology to the WINE team.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
        6·
        2 months ago

        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.

    • Gamma@beehaw.orgEnglish
      17·
      2 months ago

      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

      • LeFantome@programming.dev
        8·
        2 months ago

        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.

  • MonkeMischief@lemmy.today
    361·
    2 months ago

    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!

    • embed_me@programming.dev
      13·
      2 months ago

      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
        510·
        2 months ago

        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.

  • noxfriend@beehaw.org
    17·
    2 months ago

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

    • Domi@lemmy.secnd.me
      21·
      2 months ago

      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.

        • LeFantome@programming.dev
          6·
          2 months ago

          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.