I started phase 2 of my mozilla SDK fight. In other words I'm starting to identify and solve problems with the embedding API. Mozilla hackers seem to be interested in feedback and that's a good start. I like how mozilla 2.0 plans are shaping up, I think mozilla has a chance to become a very good development platform on the not too long time.

One positive aspect of working in two communities is that when you are sad about how things are going in one, you can feel better about progresses on the other side ;)

I think there are a few misconceptions that are stopping the Mono debate to be productive:

• It's not Redhat VS Novell. Realistically decisional power in this case is up to big distributors since it's up to them to pick technologies they want to ship. Though the decision is going to affect not affiliated contributors and probably mainly them.
• The concerns part of the community is expressing (again, not only Redhat employers) are real fears to be moving in the wrong direction, not an attempt to spread FUD on the Mono team. Everyone loves Mono as a technology and admires the work the team is doing. Some of us are just worried about the strategical and legal implications of such technology.
• Diverging so strongly on a core part of the desktop strategy has an high cost. From an user point of view I can see that being a blocker for a top-down design of the Desktop. From a not affiliated developer point of view I have no idea on which framework I should base my next project on. Mono is tempting but the fact that an important part of the community would not use and distribute it is a blocker.

Energy can be ambivalent. It's without any doubt positive when it builds something, even incomplete or flawed. But it can also be disruptive. In which case you'd better try and control it.