Open-Source Competition for Microsoft's .Net

Computing heavyweights Intel and Hewlett-Packard said Monday they will lend support to an effort to create an open-source version of Microsoft's .Net initiative, called Mono.

Led by open-source software maker Ximian, the Mono project aims to develop a version of the .Net programming environment that lets developers build applications to run on Linux and UNIX operating systems. Intel Labs and HP's Linux division, each of which develops software for those two operating systems, have said they will endorse Mono's effort.

"The prospects of being able to support .Net not just on Windows but on Linux or UNIX holds a lot of promise for them," says Miguel de Icaza, chief technology officer at Ximian, who is leading the 50-person development team taking part in the project.

The additional support for the project came only after the Mono group agreed to use a new software license, called the X11 license, to protect some of the technology it develops. Developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, X11 will allow companies to use part of the technology developed by Mono, called class libraries, in the software they sell without disclosing how they use it.

Mono's technology was previously licensed under the GNU GPL (General Purpose License) and a similar software license called the LGPL (Lesser General Public License). Any software code protected under those two licenses is freely available to developers to view, modify, and distribute. However, any changes made to the code must be published and made available to the public.

Open Opposition

A number of major software companies, such as Microsoft, oppose the GPL due to its open nature. Microsoft has continually argued that the software license makes it difficult for a company to protect intellectual property because it forces a company to expose to competitors the blueprints of any code it uses that is licensed under the GPL.

The new license that the Mono project will invoke says a developer can use the software code, modify it, and distribute it commercially, without publishing any changes it makes. Intel and HP support the new license because it would allow them to use the technology in their own software products without disclosing details to competitors. HP called the licensing shift a "practical move," in a statement on Monday. Intel said the switch will accelerate innovation on the Mono project.

"It allows Intel and HP to contribute to the project, which is one of the reasons we're making this change," de Icaza says. "It's something that Intel and HP feel is useful to them."

The license changes will affect only work on the class libraries developed by the Mono project. A software compiler used in the effort, called the C# compiler, will continue to be licensed under the GPL. In addition, Mono's version of the runtime environment Common Language Runtime will continue to be used under the LGPL.