I disagree, and I think Mono is stronger now with a startup behind it. With Novell you only had the perception of some cushion. Novell laid off the entire engineering staff behind Mono, including Miguel. If he had simply walked away from the project after that, do you think it would have continued regardless of whether Novell held onto it?

With Xamarin the Mono folks have some skin in the game beyond a paycheck and their own passion. Even if Miguel were to walk away -- something I find unlikely -- there is a business now that depends upon its success and not some neglected division within a rudderless company.