Novell today announced the
availability of Mono(TM) 1.0, an open source development platform based
on the .NET framework that allows software developers to efficiently
build Linux* and cross-platform applications to benefit their customers
or co-workers. A community initiative sponsored by Novell, the Mono
project makes it far easier to build and develop applications on Linux
and other platforms, allowing developers to get software to market
faster and more cost effectively.
“Even as Linux grows on enterprise desktops, developing applications
for the Linux desktop has been challenging because existing tools were
extremely technical and complex,” said Miguel de Icaza, Novell(R) vice
president of development and founder of the Mono project. “Mono is an
extremely usable, commercial-grade development platform for Linux
desktops and servers with a complete set of tools and APIs. It’s based
on published standards and proven programming languages and libraries,
and Mono’s cross-platform capabilities also extend to applications for
Microsoft Windows, Apple MacOS X and other flavors of UNIX.”
Mono includes a C# compiler, a .NET-compatible runtime and two stacks
of application programming interfaces (API) — a Mono stack that takes
utmost advantage of Linux servers and desktops, and a set of APIs
compatible with the Microsoft .NET Framework 1.1 that provides support
for ASP.NET, ADO.NET and several other components. To further aid
software developers, a new Web site — http://www.mono-project.com —
has been launched with tools, resources, project roadmaps and detailed
information about Mono. Previous project Web sites focused on creating
and contributing to Mono, while the new site caters to users of Mono and
those deploying applications with Mono, in addition to project
contributors.
With hundreds of developers around the world contributing to Mono, it
is a recommended platform for building desktop applications on the Linux
operating system, and Novell is using Mono internally in the development
of products including iFolder and ZENworks(R). Since the Mono Beta 1 was
released May 4, more than 50,000 copies of the software have been
downloaded.
“The Mono project is not only delivering on its promise as a complete
open source development platform based on .NET, but it also offers
tremendous cross-platform support,” said Philippe Cohen, vice president
of products for Mainsoft Corporation.
Matthias Bauer, head of development for Voelcker Informatik AG, a
Berlin-based consulting company working with the City of Munich, said,
“With Mono we can integrate Linux systems into our IT service management
solution. Mono is a very important step that allows us to easily create
cross-platform management solutions and integrate Linux as a manageable
server system into standard Microsoft networks.”
Mono 1.0 incorporates key .NET-compliant components such as a C#
compiler and a portable execution system that includes just-in-time
(JIT) and pre-compilation support. In addition, the Mono project
provides:
– An advanced development environment for writing Linux applications
with unprecedented productivity.
– Comprehensive APIs for delivering rich client, Web services and
server-side applications.
– Cross-platform deployment capabilities, supporting Linux, Sun
Solaris*, Apple* MacOS X, Microsoft Windows* NT/XP and various other
UNIX* systems on a variety of architectures.
– Highly effective tools that facilitate the creation of product APIs
and software development kits (SDK) that are language independent across
multiple operating systems.
– The cross-platform Gtk# GUI programming library that allows
developers to target Linux, Windows and MacOS X with a single code base
from any of the Mono compatible programming languages.
– Support for several languages such as VisualBasic, Python, JScript
and Java. Through the open source project iKVM, Mono includes Java
support, making the popular language an able vehicle for leveraging Mono
technology.
Availability
Mono 1.0 is available for download at
http://www.mono-project.com/downloads/index.html. For more
information about the Mono project, visit http://www.mono-project.com.
For more on Novell’s Linux strategy and offerings, see
http://www.novell.com/linux.
