AW: this affects DotGNU (was: this doesn't affect DotGNU (was Re:[DotGNU]New addendum for MS redistributables))

[Carsten Kuckuk]

Consequences for DotGNU-development: In the short-term: None, as long as
only free tools and libraries are used for implementing it. Running
third-party software on top of DotGNU is a problem of the end-user, not of
DotGNU developers. [That's a short-term view. In the long-term it will
definitely hurt DotGNU].

Consequences for ISVs: Very painful.

Law: IANAL, but I understand that the US law system's concept of common law
sometimes turns habbits into rights. In some states if you live together
with a person of the opposite sex long enough and just claim that you are
husband and wife long enough, you become husband and wife. Since the sixties
it has always been the case that ISVs using a compiler and its libraries
while writing their own programs had the right to ship it, and the users of
the software had the right to run it wherever it pleased them. Of course
there are warranty issues, but they did it. I'm wondering if a good lawyer
could use this line of reasoning.

.NET: I'm wondering what Microsoft will do about it's BSD release of .NET
this summer: Will BSD users be allowed to run programs developed under
VS.NET on it, or is it the first Microsoft product that is dead on arrival?