
Ask HN: Why is Mono still not widely used on Linux? - wilsonfiifi
It seems as though one of the initial reasons for not embracing .Net on Linux i.e. &quot;.Net is Microsoft and Microsoft is Evil&quot;, now apply to Java since Oracle took over. So why is .Net&#x2F;mono still not being shown much love?
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melling
Isn't Java still open source and isn't it a first a class citizen on Linux? In
other words, you get the same Oracle JIT optimizations on Linux as you do on
Windows and the Mac.

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SEJeff
Perhaps because Ximian is spending most of their time on mobile and their
partnership with Microsoft? And because most .Net developers aren't huge fans
of Linux perhaps?

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wilsonfiifi
You're probably right but I think Ximian shifting their focus to mobile was
probably because they needed a way to finance future development of mono after
Novell was bought by Attachmate.

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scaramanga
And it's just not, technically, particularly compelling either.

Also, not sure Java was any more or less evil when it was Sun. In either case
the question is just one about which demographics the multi-million dollar
marketing campaigns behind one technology or another have targeted. Had they
decided Linux hackers were going to be their customers then I'm sure that
demographic would be drinking the kool aid and wearing the t-shirts instead.

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sharemywin
I only see 2 use cases: 1\. already windows app port to Linux. 2\. want to
deploy on iOS(apple tablets, maybe phone) and linux otherwise why not use
java.

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catinsocks
Probably because it isn't an official port, there is no reason to learn .NET
if you don't develop exclusively for Microsoft.

If you're developing for multiple platforms chances are you already use some
other toolkit with platform specific bits mixed in, mono is only useful if you
are a .NET developer and then decide you want to port apps.

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dragonwriter
> It seems as though one of the initial reasons for not embracing .Net on
> Linux i.e. ".Net is Microsoft and Microsoft is Evil", now apply to Java
> since Oracle took over.

The initial reason for not embracing .NET on Linux is that the entity that
created and maintains .NET doesn't support Linux as a first-class platform for
.NET.

That remains the case.

Even the entity that maintains Mono, the almost-.NET that runs, among other
places, on Linux, isn't really focussed on Linux any more, having moved on to
mobile.

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yzzxy
Mono is widely used in games for Linux, for what it's worth. A lot of
independent games have been written in the .NET XNA framework, and Mono has a
Monogame component that allows developers to port these games to Linux
relatively easily.

Between the Humble Bundles including a lot of Linux ports and the Linux
Steam/Steam OS launch from Valve, there's a lot of these ports coming out
right now.

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jlengrand
I would take the question the other way around.

Why would a .NET developer use linux in the first place?

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kristianp
I'm another .net developer, who loves linux. I have had daydreams of porting
the software at work to mono, so we can have Mac and Linux versions, but it
isn't going to happen.

When I use linux, I much prefer to use languages where linux is the "1st
class" platform (and not Java or JRE based). Mono is improving all the time,
but C# doesn't have the attraction for me outside of work.

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DrTung
You could try Qt, it gives you a pretty good experience on Linux, actually
slightly better than on Windows IMHO. Also good support for Macs.

It's C++ though :-)

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gesman
Enterprises don't do Linux. Enterprises hate sysadmins (i.e. the guys who
control everything that managers don't have a control of and no clue about).

Enterprises can afford Windows + support. Enterprises love [Azure] cloud.

Linux + Mono is a bit of a bait-and-switch candy from Ballmer.

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iends
This is an odd perspective to have. I'm fairly certain a large percentage of
the Fortune 100 use linux (based on personal observation and experience).

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shaboon
off course they do.

