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Earlier this year, Microsoft open sourced a big chunk of .NET, publishing its new compiler, Roslyn, and many .NET libraries under the Apache license. Today, the company took that same open sourcing effort a great deal further. Microsoft announced that its full server .NET stack, including the just-in-time compiler and runtime and the core class libraries that all .NET software depends on, will all be open sourced.
The code will be hosted on GitHub and published under a permissive MIT-style license.
With this release, Microsoft wants to make sure that the .NET stack is fully functional and production quality on both Linux and OS X. The company is working with the Mono community to make sure that this platform is "enterprise-ready."
Not sure I'd want a port of .NET but perhaps we'll see some improvements to WINE with this available codebase.
Additionally, Microsoft announced a partnership with Xamarin for Visual Studio 2015 with support for iOS, Android and Windows, allowing to use one tool for all. This will impact Xamarin tools as well, making easier to install them from Visual Studio.
(Score: 1) by Wrong Turn Ahead on Thursday November 13 2014, @06:24AM
Can someone please briefly explain why Mono or .Net would be desired on a Linux server? How is it superior, exactly? Also, I thought the community had gone anti-Mono a couple years back, have things changed since then? Not troll'n, I'm genuinely asking...
(Score: 2) by mendax on Thursday November 13 2014, @07:29AM
Well, as someone who has played around with .Net and C# a bit, all I can say is that C# is a very cool language, and this an assessment from someone who loves Java and is highly prejudiced again M$ products. LINQ, perhaps, is its best feature once you learn to stomach it. Part of me prefers the SQL queries via JDBC in the Java world but LINQ has a lot of appeal, especially because it works with things other than just relational databases.
It's really quite a simple choice: Life, Death, or Los Angeles.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Common Joe on Thursday November 13 2014, @09:17AM
I like C# as a language... especially the older syntax around version 2 or 3.0. I never liked LINQ. It encourages use of variables defined at runtime instead of compile time, it's syntax is different from "standard" SQL, and it seems to violate the basic ideas of object oriented programming. (At least as I visualize "object oriented" in my mind. I'm sure others have a different opinion.) Personally, one of the strengths of .NET is that it can use different languages and mush them all together. I'm surprised LINQ wasn't separated as a completely separate language. I guess the idea was to keep the code written to a minimum, but I feel it makes C# too mushy. I think there are better ways to do it.
I just went to a talk recently about the up and coming stuff in the next version of C# and, for the most part, I see extra syntax being given to C# that will only make code harder to maintain. I felt this way for a couple of versions. They are trying to make the language be able to do the same thing several different ways. Visual Basic did that and I feel it leads to buggy code when someone tries to update code during maintenance. How can everyone know all of the syntax of a particular language these days -- especially someone who is learning the language? Even if they are a good programmer, they might misinterpret the subtleties of the compressed code. There are times I look at the "new syntax features" of C# and think it's beginning to look like the code obfuscation contest put out by the C guys.
FYI: I like C#. I like Java. I don't like Microsoft.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 13 2014, @09:17AM
Ah, you love Java? I don't. So I guess I won't love C# either, right?
(Score: 2) by choose another one on Thursday November 13 2014, @10:34AM
Not at all - I don't love Java, in fact I gradually grew to dislike it over a number of years and since Oracle took over and started bundling malware inside Java security updates, I am heading towards actively hating it. C# is much better, in a lot of ways, and in fact I have grown to like it (over the same time period that I have grown to hate Java).
(Score: 2) by Common Joe on Thursday November 13 2014, @09:03AM
When writing everyday business applications, it is easier than dealing with the hassles of C or C++. Java also falls into this category. There are also plenty of C# and Java programmers to draw from if you're looking to replace a missing man on the team or hire someone new. C# and Java have more resources thrown at them than most other languages. It's easier to get hired for C# or Java than most other languages. Both C# and Java have their problems, no doubt. No language is perfect. Before anyone blasts me with the problems C# has, I know it has problems. I was merely answering the question.
Personally, I also like the idea of crossing O.S. lines between Linux and Windows. Perfect? Definitely not. Better than a lot of other stuff out there, though. Does it open you up for potential legal hassle in the future? Both C# and Java do, yes. At this point, I don't think it matters anymore which language is picked to work in, though. All of them are going to be a potential problem in the future -- either because of the language or the dependencies that the language(s) require no matter what O.S. it is on.
Merely my opinion and 2 cents.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 13 2014, @02:59PM
Desktop GUI development with C#, Winforms and Visual Studio is a joy. There is nothing remotely like that in the Linux world.
(Score: 1) by Refugee from beyond on Thursday November 13 2014, @06:46PM
What about using it? *cough*
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