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List:       kde-linux
Subject:    Re: [kde-linux] Microsoft Wins
From:       Dave Leigh <dave.leigh () cratchit ! org>
Date:       2001-09-09 18:00:00
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On Sunday 09 September 2001 12:50, Steve Hunt wrote:
> Here's my question about .NET:
>
> WTF is it?
>
> From all of the research I've done on it, it all boils down to marketing
> FUD. It doesn't really seem to have any technology behind the hype.  They
> say they're going to be implementing XML into their technologies, but gee,
> guys, it's been done!
>
> I'd love to ask the folks at Ximian how they're trying to emulate .NET.  It
> just makes no sense.

OK, it's off-topic, but it has to be said.

There is a lot to .NET, actually.  FUD is fear, uncertainty, and doubt.  .NET 
actually is a product (or a series of products working to the same goal). A 
lay description can be found at http://www.gotdotnet.com/Beta2/dotNET 
Framework Beta 2 Reviewers Guide.doc.  Conceptually, it's not really a bad 
idea. This doesn't mean that I'm terribly happy about the way Microsoft is 
doing it or even the fact that they're the ones pushing it, but the idea that 
it should be dismissed out of ignorance is... well... ignorant.

The important part for emulation purposes (and the part I understand Ximian 
to be concentrating on) is the Common Language Runtime. Languages compile to 
some intermediate code that is executed by the runtime. Note that as .NET 
"stuff" starts showing up on the internet, such a runtime will be in demand, 
much as Samba, DOSEMU, and WINE are in demand today. Otherwise there'll be a 
lot of "foreign" bytecode floating around the net that we won't be able to 
run.  Ximian's effort to interpret the .NET bytecode isn't any worse than 
Blackdown's implementation of Java.

Note, please, that a Common Language Runtime isn't something you 
technically need .NET for.  You could do the same thing with Java, or ANY 
runtime.  Use of a JVM, for example, doensn't technically require that you 
use a Java compiler.  You could use any language, so long as the compiler 
generates Java bytecode executable by the JVM. For a long time I've thought 
that Sun was missing a marketing bet by not clearly differentiating the Java 
compiler from the JVM.  Other people have been better at understanding this.  
Check out http://www2.hursley.ibm.com/netrexx/ for an example. 

The CONCEPT of .NET would seem to me to be to be useful as an 
"inter-operating system,"  That said, I seriously doubt the wisdom of trying 
to push it as a generalized platform or operating system.  not the kind of 
slow kludge I'd want to base my core operations (which I would leave to 
Unix).  Microsoft, as usual, are attempting to take a reasonable idea for 
interoperability and extend it to the unreasonable conclusion that it should 
be used generally.


-- 
dave.leigh@cratchit.org
http://www.cratchit.org

The luck that is ordained for you will be coveted by others.
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