Microsoft And A KDE Project Spar Over "MAUI"

A few years ago it was GNOME developers frustrated with Microsoft over naming a project GVFS (later renamed to Virtual File System for Git) as it collided with their GVFS (GNOME Virtual File-System) while now there is a similar situation brewing between Microsoft and KDE camps.

Alongside Microsoft's big WSL announcements today for their virtual Build conference, the company also announced that Xamarin Forms was rebranding/evolving as MAUI. This Xamarin UI framework was rebranding as MAUI for Multi-Platform APP UI. As MAUI, this Microsoft framework is to focus on providing a cross-platform, native UI off a single code-base and to work across multiple devices and form factors. Microsoft is aiming for .NET MAUI as part of .NET 6 as an evolution of Xamarin Forms.

For the past two years though there has been MAUI as a KDE hosted project serving as a free and open-source UI framework. They use the name MAUI as an acronym for Multi-Adaptable User Interfaces.

Obviously the Maui Project is not happy with Microsoft renaming Xamarin Forms to MAUI due to the name clash and being similar software components.

The open-source KDE-hosted project put out their official statement criticizing Microsoft's decision. They are calling for Microsoft to change the name of their project.

The community MAUI crew did open a dotNET bug report over the clash. Before closing the bug report, Microsoft's David Ortinau commented, "Hi all, the official legal name is .NET Multi-platform App UI and MAUI is an acronym, code name. This has been through legal review."

He is willing to communicate in private about any ongoing concerns, but at least as of writing Microsoft doesn't appear to be renaming MAUI.