“It is dangerous to depend on C#, so we need to discourage its use”

“It is dangerous to depend on C#, so we need to discourage its use.”

This is a quote by Richard Stallman in an article on cnet news about the use of Mono. The issue comes down to the idea that Microsoft could enforce patents at some point against the use of C#.

I wonder if Bell Labs could enforce patents or anything against C++. Could Sun (or Oracle if they get to take over Sun) do the same with Java?

Maybe it is just that open source is only good and viable when it is IBM doing it and not when it is Microsoft.

If we listen to Stallman, then it sounds like you need to start using Visual Basic .NET with your Mono applications!

What do you think? Should we avoid C#?