Redhat/Fedora drops Mono

It will come as no surprise to regular readers that I am heartily encouraged by this small snippet of news I picked up via Twitter this afternoon (thanks Roy)

From the Fedora Mailing List:

I have now changed the default panel configuration in F12 to include gnote instead of tomboy, and changed comps to make gnote default and tomboy optional.

This won’t replace tomboy in existing installations, but new installations will get gnote instead of tomboy.

This also means that gnote should show up on the live cd (where we excluded tomboy previously, due to no space for mono).

And further on the Wiki we see:

Gnote is installed by default in GNOME for this release replacing Tomboy. Gnote is a port of Tomboy from Mono to C++ and consumes less resources. Gnote is both an applet that can sit in your GNOME panel as well as a individual application you can run within other desktop environments. Fedora Desktop Live CD excluded Mono in the last releases due to lack of space. Gnote will be installed by default in the Live CD as well in this release. Tomboy is still available as a optional alternative.

This is the right thing to do IMHO. I have no problem with Mono being available in the repos for those who wish to use it. I would however much prefer that it is not installed by default on my distribution of choice.

Roy also posted a good article this morning explaining some of the key issues which make Mono such a bitter pill for many. If you care about what software you use, it is well worth reading.

Also, if you want to know how to remove Mono from your Ubuntu distribution:

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18 Comments

  • neo says:

    The way to encourage the right behavior is to switch to Fedora as a reward

  • LIAR says:

    Ola,

    As I know that you don’t like very much the .NET/Mono stuff, I’d like to share with you this news (in French):
    http://www.generation-nt.com/firefox-net-framework-extension-microsoft-actualite-749011.html

    It seems that installing .Net framework on windows implied the (forced and hidden) installation of a plugin in firefox. And this is not all: this plugin is not removable through the easy FF process, as M$ as disabled the “uninstall” facility of FF.

    As I already noticed on this blog, such a plug-in introduces a very big security hole for newbies: in one clic on a webpage the user can install any software proposed, including viruses, trojan, rootkits, etc. (yes, I know people will say that the user action is needed… but we all know that newbies never read warning before installing software).

    Faced with the discontent of many FF users, it seems that M$ reacted by dis-disenabling the easy removal, but the hidden installation is still there.

  • pel says:

    Nice article you linked to (Roys article).
    It really is “fair and balanced”.

    I might stretch myself into agreeing that removing mono by default is a good move, but enough with the bashing already. It is disheartening to see FUD fly in this direction – even if there *is* a lot of uncertainty.

  • […] developer of Gnote, Hubert, has already moved to Fedora and there is prior coverage of this news right here (the information was shared in Twitter half a day […]

  • Martyn says:

    Hi

    I’d like to make sure we are mono free – is there anywhere where I can get a list of mono apps installed by ubuntu (eeebuntu 8.10 in my case) and the alternatives.

    Martyn

  • Alan Lord says:

    @LIAR, thanks – I have also seen that news in English somewhere a couple of days ago. Yes, it was shocking that M$ is installing an extension that basically is a security risk. Here’s the story in English: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/securityfix/2009/05/microsoft_update_quietly_insta.html

    @pel, IMHO it is a ‘fair and balanced’ peice. Note that is was written by Chris Smart, not Roy Schestowitz.

    @Martyn, By Default, Ubuntu only installs 2 apps that depend on Mono. Tomboy and F-Spot. There are a few others in the repositories. Here is a useful link to a Wiki page showing the known apps and some suggestions for alternatives: http://boycottnovell.com/wiki/index.php/Mono_Applications.

    HTH

  • Martyn says:

    Alan

    On my eeeBuntu distro it also installed Banshee also. Not needed so no issues there. I’ve now expunged Mono from my NetBook.

    Cheers for the link – v useful.

    Martyn

  • Alan Lord says:

    Cool. Glad to have helped Martyn.

    If you are uncertain about any updates or new installs I would recommend using Tim Chase’s Mononono. It will prevent any accidental re-installation of Mono.

  • Very nice site. I found it from one of your SJVN comments. I’ve linked you to my blog. Keep up the good work!

  • turtlewax says:

    I like having the choice to install mono. Trouble is, making it “optional” effectively makes it inaccessible in some situations. For example web-hosting servers, or any environment where “options” are ratcheted down by bureaucracy. No harm done though; Ubuntu works fine.

  • HC says:

    Good deal Red Hat! I am coming back.

  • Mark says:

    Dare I mention another great option that avoids Mono entirely?

    KDE4.

    As an added bonus it runs quite a bit faster than GNOME on any systems that has working hardware-accelerated graphics.

  • Gigi says:

    I have been using gnote for about 3 months now on KDE, GNOME, Fluxbox and openbox on F10 and F11. It works correctly on all of these. It is a good move to include gnote instead of tomboy since a normal tomboy alone install takes 30MB of download and 98MB of installed space on disk(with mono) compared to about 2MB download and 10MB usage for gnote.

  • yeah says:

    yeah! Time to try Fedora again.

  • Bob K. says:

    Ok, I see everyone wanting mono apps removed. So hear is a question to all of you. What apps are going to replace the mono apps that are removed. Remeber that they should be equal in every respect as to functionality and features. And they should not be replaced until the alternative app is equal if not better before inclusion. (Ex:gnote is still not equal in all respects to Tomboy in features and functionality), therefore should not be included by default till completed. Replacing the mono apps with inferior apps just defeats the purpose of displaying the advantages of your product.

  • […] default note-taking application in Fedora 12 instead of Tomboy, which will enable Fedora team to drop Mono out of their default configuration, and the reason for that is not only the free space […]

  • […] went to bed with Microsoft in 2006 to achieve a guarantee of immunity, while Red Hat and Fedora announced plans earlier this year to phase out the use of Mono in their default application line […]

  • […] Ultimo ma non per importanza: come segnalato da Lorenzo e ricordato da Andrea, grazie a GNote questa versione di Fedora non avrà Mono! (cfr theopensourcerer) […]

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