Novell Inc. Wednesday announced the availability of Mono 1.0, the open source development platform based on the .NET framework that allows software developers to build Linux and cross-platform apps.
A community initiative sponsored by Novell, the Mono project, says Novell "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."
Miguel de Icaza, founder of the Mono project and now VP of development at Novell, said: "Even as Linux grows on enterprise desktops, developing applications for the Linux desktop has been challenging because existing tools were extremely technical and complex."
"Mono is an extremely usable, commercial-grade development platform for Linux desktops and servers with a complete set of tools and APIs," de Icaza continued. "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 APIs: 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. While previous project Web sites focused on creating and contributing to Mono, Novell says, the new site will cater to users of Mono and those deploying applications with Mono, in addition to project contributors.
Novell is using Mono internally in the development of products including iFolder and ZENworks. Since the Mono Beta 1 was released May 4, more than 50,000 copies of the software have been downloaded.