"More Than an Open Source Curiosity" CNet (07/15/04); LaMonica, Martin Mono version 1.0 has begun shipping, enabling developers to take advantage of Microsoft's .Net development platform to write programs for Linux and other operating systems. The open-source Mono is basically a port of .Net's code, which has been submitted to the Ecma International standards body, and Mono project founder Miguel de Icaza says the three years it took to bring Mono to fruition has left the project 18 months behind the official .Net, but that the technology is still a very attractive alternative for developers. Novell, which acquired de Icaza's Ximian and the stewardship of Mono last year, is standardizing on Mono as its internal development platform because it supports Windows, Linux, and the Mac OS with the same tool base, and lets developers avoid platform-specific details. De Icaza says Mono is late to market compared to .Net because it is the nature of open-source software to respond to need rather than generate it; the Mono team, however, is already working on version 2.0 features that will incorporate Microsoft's C# 2.0, for example. Unlike .Net, Microsoft has not yet defined its Longhorn technology, so Novell cannot do much for the Linux community in terms of making compatible software, but Novell's iFolder does do many of the same data synchronization and backup tasks that Longhorn will include. The Mono project is trying to avoid Microsoft's stable of at least 30,000 patents and will remove any infringing code upon notification, says de Icaza; he is certain the idea of a multi-language virtual machine such as .Net is already covered under prior art, specifically a failed Open Software Foundation development. De Icaza says J2EE has become too difficult to use for smaller software enterprises, and that the Mono project conducted a survey where developers said J2EE was 25 percent less efficient than Microsoft's ASP.Net. Click Here to View Full Article http://news.com.com/2008-7344_3-5271084.html __________________________________ ::Instance ltd Software Engineering and Development www.instance.gr Telephone: +32-610-961120 FAX: +32-610-961121 Address: Patras Scientific Park, Greece