DotGNU - Keeping You from Getting Tangled in a Net!

The DotGNU project was originally started in reaction to Microsoft's .NET strategy, for which it will be a complete replacement (and not just a Free Software implementation). The parts of .NET strategy about which we are most concerned are Microsoft's attempts to gain control of the internet and its users. Parts of this strategy, including the plan to unleash a "Hailstorm" have been dropped, because all the major companies which sell services to consumers have realised that this "Hailstorm" would not be good for them. On other fronts, Microsoft is still working hard to entangle everyone in their .NET -- In contrast, the goal of DotGNU is to give computer users full freedom to use the internet as they want. For example, the DotGNU approach to "web services" will make it possible for end users to run webservice software on their own PC, so that the users are not forced to migrate their data to the webservice servers.

DotGNU will use a decentralized paradigm: No single company, server or entity will control authorization. This avoids privacy problems like those recently pointed out in a letter from the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) on Microsoft's Passport system.

Furthermore, DotGNU will emphasize security, it will use encryption wherever possible to keep user data secure and hidden. (According to the article Risks of the Passport Single Signon Protocol[1], Microsoft's approach has some fundamental problems in the area of security. In fact it appears that Microsoft is storing the password and username for Passport as clear text, a huge security risk.) Because of entirely unrelated, serious security problems, Microsoft was forced on Nov 2, 2001 to disable the "virtual wallet" function of the Passport service as Marc Slemko published a sample exploit that demonstrates a cross-site scripting vulnerability.

There are no real remaining traditional competitors to MS, and the US government recently failed to contain MS, so the field is left to us. MS has announced that it has "bet the company" on .Net, because "Webservices" represents the future, and Windows and MS Office will become progressively less important. So DotGNU stands between where MS is and where it wants to be. Therefore DotGNU and .Net represents the ultimate showdown between proprietary and Free Software.

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Where will DotGNU compete with the Microsoft .Net and Hailstorm products?

In all areas.

Just like it's the goal of the GNU project to create a complete operating system that makes it completely unnecessary to use a non-free operating system like e.g. Microsoft Windows, it's the goal of the DotGNU project to be a complete competitor to Microsoft's ".Net initiative" and "Hailstorm" products.

The DotGNU project will compete with Microsoft for end-users, business customers and developers.

Microsoft Windows had a huge head start over GNU/Linux in terms of user-friendliness to end users. In spite of Microsoft's vast resources, GNU/Linux is already better than Microsoft Windows in some areas, and catching up fast in most others.

We believe that the same kind of success story is possible with the DotGNU project. The main difference is that this time, Microsoft doesn't have such a big head start.

What will DotGNU do that those products also want to do?

The DotGNU system will deliver the same and better benefits to end users and business customers, but we will be very careful that no company or other organization can gain any monopoly-like power over the system.

How will DotGNU be different from those Microsoft products?

The DotGNU project will use good ideas from Microsoft as a source of inspiration, and Microsoft will probably also use good ideas from the DotGNU project as a source of inspiration.

The big difference is that there is a single company (Microsoft) in the center of the universe of the ".Net initiative" and "Hailstorm" products, while the DotGNU project creates a framework where anyone who wants can offer every service. For example, with DotGNU every Internet Service Provider (ISP) can offer the equivalent of Microsoft's "Passport" service, and the ISP can customize and modify this service according to their customers' needs.

In the DotGNU system, the paradigm of decentralization goes so far that whenever an Application Service Provider (ASP) makes a program available to a customer, the customer is not forced to use the program only on the Application Service Provider's computers. The customers can download the program and use it locally on their own PCs. This is in strong contrast to the Microsoft's vision for "web services".

What do you guys think about Hailstorm and Passport?

Hailstorms tend to be destructive. And one should not need to use a passport in one's own country.²

What do you guys think of Microsoft's .Net and Hailstorm efforts?

Dangerous stuff. It is often said that the price of freedom is eternal vigilance.³ Unless we counter them, Microsoft's efforts are not only a threat to Free Software, they are also extremely dangerous tools in the hands of any Evil Government that wants to make their citizens unfree.

References:

1. David P. Kormann and Aviel D. Rubin, Risks of the Passport Single Signon Protocol, Elsevier Science Press, volume 33, pages 51-58, 2000.
2. The quote "Hailstorms tend to be destructive. And one should not need to use a passport in one's own country." is taken from a post by David Sugar on the arch mailing list.
3. This truth was popularized by Thomas Jefferson (1743 - 1826). The original source seems to be a speech by John Philpot Curran, who said "It is the common fate of the indolent to see their rights become a prey to the active. The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance; which condition if he break, servitude is at once the consequence of his crime and the punishment of his guilt." - John Philpot Curran: Speech upon the Right of Election, 1790. (Speeches. Dublin, 1808.)