Hi Hank,
>
>But Sun didn't react, because that wasn't their method of running a business. Can one be too altruistic?

I don't believe altruism was the main reason for this - although the PR effect might have helped...

>Miguel's point about .Net is that the licenses are actually better (= giving more freedom to the user) than Java's licensing, and MS has given patent rights to follow .Net. It's beginning to look as though this might be huge.

The MS license (again, IANAL and proud) reads sweet and short. The recursive protection/elimination part seems well drafted. What I am unsure of is the state of things for modules like Ado.Net, which could be regenerated out of the ILM. Any patents there ?

>BTW: one analysis I saw today said the IRuby fell because of the lawyers. That is, a concern about the community putting in code, and MS getting sued for bad results. Of course this is what the Codeplex Foundation does: protect those who contribute.

So far no outside code went in as direct patch (at least without MS manually copy/pasting & checking it), one of the older beefs on the IPy list.

> So if IRuby, IPython and so forth were in the Codeplex Foundation, it seems to me MS and whoever could contribute development, without concern for being sued. Interesting thought, anyway. They would have to distance themselves from it, I think, by first discontinuing development, having the projects get into the Codeplex Foundation on their own, and then contributing development.

Such a distance could eliminate the "from MS" bonus allowing Iron languages in "MS only" company stacks. Getting outside help to check outside sources might have been a better way to allow new input with a safety net. Certainly more a loose/loose than win/win.

regards

thomas