[sf-lug] .net now available in Linux

[Tony]

.net, a windows application is now available for
Linux. This is an integrating move. 

Tony

***

Mono upgrade targets Linux desktop applications

By James Niccolai, IDG News Service, 11/09/06 

Novell has announced an upgrade to its Mono software
that should make it easier for developers to port .Net
desktop applications to Linux. 
Related links

Novell releases Mono 1.0
06/30/04

Mono is an open source implementation of Microsoft
Corp.'s .Net development software. It aims to let
developers take advantage of Microsoft's .Net
programming tools to create applications that will run
on Linux and other non-Microsoft operating systems. 

The software was conceived as a way to bring .Net
applications to the Linux desktop, but initial
versions supported primarily server applications
because that side of the development work turned out
to be faster and simpler, said Miguel de Icaza, leader
of the Mono project and a vice president at Novell,
which acquired Mono in 2003 through its purchase of
Ximian Inc. 

The new version of Mono released on Thursday, version
1.2, adds support for Windows Forms, the graphical
user interface APIs (application programming
interfaces) in .Net. That will make it easier for
developers to port client applications written in .Net
to Linux and other OSes, De Icaza said. 

Version 1.2 also adds support for applications written
in C# 2.0, the current version of the .Net programming
language. Other enhancements include significant
improvements in Mono's performance and memory
management, de Icaza said. 

The update is available now and is compatible with
prior versions. "Any program that worked in Mono 1.1
will work in Mono 1.2," de Icaza said. Like the prior
version, it will also allow .Net applications to run
on Mac OS X, Solaris and other flavors of Unix.   

Its release comes after Microsoft and Novell announced
a broad agreement intended to make life easier for
customers running Windows and Novell's SUSE Linux
operating system. There's nothing in that agreement
about Mono -- de Icaza said he learned of the deal
only a week ago -- but he hopes it will produce some
positive knock-on effects for Mono. 

Mono is a tricky proposition for Microsoft. It can
benefit its customers by making it easier for
developers familiar with Microsoft's tools to create
applications for Linux. But Microsoft would also be
reluctant to wholeheartedly support a technology that
makes it easier for customers to switch to Linux. 

Novell made its announcement at Microsoft's Tech Ed
Developers' Conference & Expo in Barcelona, where it
has a booth on the show floor. But de Icaza said he
gave his presentations to developers in hotels away
from the event. "I don't think Microsoft would really
want me to be a speaker at their show," he said. 

Still, the Mono team has a good relationship with
Microsoft developers and plans further products based
around the company's software. De Icaza has contacted
Microsoft about doing an implementation of its WPF/E
(Windows Presentation Foundation Everywhere)
technology, which lets graphics created for Windows
Vista applications run on other OSes and on the Web.
He also wants to do a version of CardSpace (formerly
InfoCard), a new authentication technology planned for
Vista. 

Mono's development lags behind that of .Net. While it
has yet to fully support .Net 2.0, Microsoft has
already released .Net 3.0 to developers. And the
version of Windows Forms supported today is version
1.1, which is already about a year old. 

De Icaza expects to release a technical preview of
Mono 2.0, which should offer full compatibility with
.Net 2.0, in March, with the final software likely to
ship before the end of 2007. That would put Mono about
15 months behind Microsoft's development of .Net, de
Icaza said. 

"I'd like to narrow [the gap], but it's not too bad
because it still takes a long time before people
actually adopt new technologies after they are
released," he said. 

Mono is available as a free download.


 
____________________________________________________________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Everyone is raving about the all-new Yahoo! Mail beta.
http://new.mail.yahoo.com