From the ‘Desktop Linux Titans‘ files:
Miguel de Icaza started the GNOME project back in 1997 along with Federico Mena. In recent years, my interactions with De Icaza have been all about Mono, the open source implementation of .NET. Even more recently, De Icaza’s focus has narrowed further with his new startup Xamarin that is built around mobile development.
In a recent conversation I had with De Icaza, he told me that he was ‘heartbroken’ that his company is not doing Linux desktop stuff. That said, he also noted that mobile developers are very pragmatic.
“In the Linux world, Mono was always the subject of a huge anti-Microsoft debate,” De Icaza told me. “One thing that has magically vanished from my life is participation in Internet flame fests about how evil Microsoft is, so now I can actually focus on products and not flame wars.”
Though Xamarin isn’t a Linux desktop company, De Icaza told me he’s an active GNOME 3 user at home and he likes it very much.
“I really like that I can extend my Shell with JavaScript very easily,” De Icaza said. “I still use Linux everyday, it’s my main computer at home, though at work my main machine is a Mac.”
Sean Michael Kerner is a senior editor at InternetNews.com, the news service of Internet.com, the network for technology professionals. Follow him on Twitter @TechJournalist