Project Mono .NET for Unix, Linux Goes Beta

by Timothy Prickett Morgan

When Novell decided to get into the Linux and open source software business, it acquired Ximian, whose Linux gurus created the Gnome graphical user interface, and started on an open source implementation of Microsoft's .NET Framework, Common Language Runtime (CLR), and C# language. After nearly three years, Project Mono, as that open source .NET is called, has entered Beta 1.

The idea behind Mono is to take .NET to Unix and Linux, but Mono also has been implemented to support the .NET Framework 1.1 and supports Microsoft's own ASP.NET and ADO.NET protocols for Web services. This means that, in theory, you can use Mono on Unix, Linux, and Windows servers and not even have to deploy Microsoft's own wares to make use of the .NET concepts.

While much will be made about Mono in relation to Linux, the truth of the matter is that Mono will appeal mostly to the Unix community. Unix has long since established itself as the dominant commercial transaction processing platform worldwide (in terms of money spent on Unix systems, applications running on them, and the number of customers in the aggregate Unix installed base). Linux is still largely an infrastructure play at most corporations, but Unix is where new and legacy applications are still deployed. That doesn't mean that Unix shops are not also using Windows or Linux platforms in the tiers of their infrastructure; they most certainly are. The appeal of Mono to Unix shops is that it will allow them to deploy a common set of tools and technologies that span Unix, Linux, and Windows to refit their Unix applications for the Web services world. If Microsoft wanted to be a tools company, it would have to make .NET run on Unix, Linux, and other platforms, but Microsoft sees itself as a platform company, so .NET is absorbing, surrounding, or freeze-drying the technologies of other platforms, particularly through the .NET framework and the CLR. Microsoft wants everyone to use the Windows stack and has made Windows more appealing by adding .NET features. Mono is, in essence, a validation of the .NET features Microsoft has created, but it is driven by the open systems impulse to make these features available on all platforms. One is about making money with good software and lock-in, while the other is about making good software. Customers will decide which approach is better when they vote with their dollars.

But that is a long-term view. Remember, this is only Mono Beta 1, and it is too early to tell how well it will work. Beta 2 is scheduled for June 1, and the official release of Mono 1.0 is slated for June 30. That Mono 1.0 release date could get pushed out, of course, depending on user feedback from the betas. By the fourth quarter of 2004, Novell expects to deliver Mono 1.2, which implements some missing elements from Microsoft's .NET Framework and includes some extensions to the framework that are expected this year. Mono 1.4, which will synch up with .NET Framework 1.2, is expected in the second quarter of 2005. You can download Mono Beta 1 from www.go-mono.com.