Mono

Although Microsoft intended it for Windows, the Microsoft .NET platform has grown to encompass many other operating systems. No, this isn’t a rare sign of Microsoft letting customers choose which OS is best for them. Instead, the spread of .NET is because of the Mono project, which is a free re-implementation of .NET available under the a GPL license.

Because of the potential for patent complications, it took most distros a long time to incorporate Mono, but it’s here now and works just fine. What’s more, Mono supports both C# and Visual Basic .NET, as well as the complete .NET 1.0 and 1.1 Frameworks (and much of the 2.0 Framework, too), making it easy to learn and productive to use.

There were some fears that Mono might cease to exist. ...

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