As long as biased people are commenting on Matt's pining for a more innovative Miguel, I thought I'd throw in my two cents. I'm certainly biased* and have my opinions as well.
So yes, Matt made a technical faux paus in pleading with Miguel to develop more applications like Dashboard instead of wasting time on copying C# and MS. (Dashboard is in fact a C# app).
Here are a few thoughts of mine based on my industry experience and working directly with many open source shops:
Thoughts on MS/C#:
- C# is a slight improvement on Java. I would call it MS's attempt to attract Java devs while completely controlling the platform (unlike J#).
- C#, though open, is a MS technology. Though Mr. Hilf is changing some things up at Redmond, I'm still weary of them.
- Adoption of C# is from MS shops (obviously)
- MS shops are very unlikely to adopt or approve non-MS products and "Open Source" is the last thing they would adopt due to all the FUD that MS has been spreading about them.
- Given the above reasons, I don't think Mono is going to help Linux adoption. It further entrenches MS's monopoly.
- MS is smart to focus on adding other languages to the CLR (ironpython, ironruby....)
- One tangible benefit of C# and the .Net platform is that it might have been an impetus towards the opening of the Java platform.
Thoughts on Gnome:
- I agree with Matt here. Miguel has spent the last X years copying MS IP rather than innovating on the desktop.
- The two biggest Gnome based distros (Redhat and Canonical) don't do Mono development
- The biggest Mono adopters are .... Novell! Surprise surprise! Sort of ironic since SuSE was traditionally the biggest KDE desktop....
- Mono is no silver bullet for taking over the desktop.
- Is it really that hard to program with pygtk? (Ala redhat and canonical)
Thoughts on Matt:
- No Matt isn't technical. But he knows the Open Source industry inside out. Moreso than anyone else I know. I don't agree with everything he says, but I think he has a point here.
- Just like Miguel, Matt has changed over the years. Our first OS discussion was how to get around the GPL while he was at Lineo. Later I actually made fun of him for carrying around a .NET book (previous or directly after Ximian acquisition). He's now pretty pro-GPL...
- Matt blogs. A LOT. Your rss reader will be busier than watching SteepandCheap.
- Matt runs OSX... ;)
Thoughts on Miguel:
- Re-implementing Silverlight in a month or whatever is quite an engineering feat. Congrats!
- You're welcome to scratch whatever itches you
Full disclosure
*Matt is a friend of mine, we're having dinner tonight. I've actually used a mono program, Hugin.