Assuming:

1) Software Patents are harmful to the society, and hence not to be supported, 2) Ideals behind FS is more important than the future of a particular product,

Why are people against Mono? It is FS, so its licence is definitely not a threat. The most popular reason seems to be the fear of *possible* violation of software patents. Again, let us assume that the community is incapable of replacing infringing code with non-infringing code. If I support free speech, and I ask someone not to speak their mind because that person might be violating some law in his country, I am being a hypocrite. Similarly, if I am against software patents, I should not be castigating some project due to possible software patent violation. (How many software patents do you think linux is *possibly* violating? What is your opinion about using linux?).

At best, this is a non-existent issue, and at worst it is civil disobedience, in *some* countries. Don't you think we should be consistent in our views? What do you think about the subject?

Offtopic: Even after taking into account the Novell marketing, those Mono guys are doing some wonderful work. Take a look at the number of new apps based on it (f-spot, beagle, tomboy etc). I don't think anyone should be apologizing for mentioning beagle, a FS, on FSF mailing list.

Cheers,

Bala.