Fedora 31 Aims To Finally Offer Mono 5 For Open-Source .NET Support

[bug77]

I've seen that AirVPN's graphical client (eddie-ui) runs the windows exe on Mono when on Linux, and it looks exactly the same as on Windows. So I'd say it could be a thing for crossplatform applications. https://github.com/AirVPN/Eddie

Then again, on OpenSUSE the exit button or clicking the X in KDE's bar does not work (I have to go and terminate Mono if I want to close that application), but everything else works.

I'm actually using Qomui, which is an unofficial but Linux native Python/Qt client for AirVPN and other services.

Still, Eddie in its current state would still work better than 99% of other VPNs where on Linux you have no client at all and can only manually run OpenVPN with config files, and running a VPN over a SSL or SSH tunnel is a PITA if you didn't set up your networking manually (which I guess isn't a thing in desktop/laptops).

So you're saying it's a more focused Wine?
Because I wasn't thinking about specific apps, but rather what do I get from the framework that I can't get from anywhere else (e.g. Java or Go).

[the_scx]

So you're saying it's a more focused Wine?
Because I wasn't thinking about specific apps, but rather what do I get from the framework that I can't get from anywhere else (e.g. Java or Go).

How many desktop applications and games in Java or Go have you seen lately?

Here you have a list of games based on the Unity engine:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Unity_games

https://unity3d.com/games-made-with-unity

In fact, there are many more.

[bug77]

Go was specifically developed to be a backend go-to solution. But on the Java side, GUIs are dead-easy (despite nobody seeming to care about them these days) and I can also think of Minecraft.
Not sure what unity is doing here, iirc its runtime is C++.
But thanks anyway, I got my answer.

[ssokolow]

But on the Java side, GUIs are dead-easy (despite nobody seeming to care about them these days)

Swing and SWT have given Java GUIs on Linux a bad name by producing application after application where the GUI feels noticeably heavier (ie. less snappy) than GTK+ or Qt when doing things that the application-specific code shouldn't reasonably be able to bog down, like switching tabs, popping open a menu, or even just having the on-hover highlight on widgets lag when it has no business to.)

...not to mention that they have a history of buggy behaviour, such as not working properly when run under a non-reparenting window manager.

[the_scx]

Go was specifically developed to be a backend go-to solution.

We even have an HTTP server in PostScript, so nothing is impossible.

http://www.pugo.org/project/pshttpd/

But on the Java side, GUIs are dead-easy (despite nobody seeming to care about them these days)

Of course, we have Swing and SWT or even JavaFX, but unfortunately almost nobody care about it these days.
We also have Gtk+ bindings for Ruby or even PHP, but this doesn't change the fact that these things didn't gain much popularity.
On the other hand, WPF or even WinForms are quite popular on Windows, and GTK# (including XWT) is not so bad on Linux.

and I can also think of Minecraft.

One popular game versus literally thousands of games. You see the difference, right?

Not sure what unity is doing here, iirc its runtime is C++.

The runtime is written in C++, but the whole Unity Scripting API is a C# thing. So, as a game developer, you'll be coding in C#, not C++.

[uid313]

On the other hand, WPF or even WinForms are quite popular on Windows, and GTK# (including XWT) is not so bad on Linux.

I just wish GObject Introspection (GI) existed .NET Core.

[uid313]

Booting into IBM SystemD/OS 10 now featuring MONO 5, PowerShell, New Packaging Store and full of love

The Unix shells are text-oriented.
Microsoft actually innovated with PowerShell and made an object-oriented shell.
Its pretty cool, you can pass around objects instead of text using pipes so you have properties on those objects than you can reach, instead having to parse with cut, grep, awk, sed, etc.
So you can do things like fetch a HTTP request, serialize the JSON to an object, pass that object into another program, etc.

Too little too late. Efforts like this and Swift on Linux without the accompanying GUI and platform libraries are always too little. Open source the whole SDK/toolkit or GTFO.

Better late than never.
Lately Microsoft are open sourcing Windows Forms and WPF and Windows UI / XAML.
Yeah, I wish it came sooner, but still appreciated.

Honest question: without its integration with various Windows stuff, what does .Net bring to other platforms?

Personally, I am not so much interested in Mono or the .NET Framework. I consider it legacy.
But .NET Core is really cool. C# is a great language. the .NET Framework is a great framework, and VS Code is a good IDE.
It is very nice to code ASP.NET Core web applications with then you can host them on Linux. With Avalonia you can write cross-platform GUI applications.

[smitty3268]

So you're saying it's a more focused Wine?
Because I wasn't thinking about specific apps, but rather what do I get from the framework that I can't get from anywhere else (e.g. Java or Go).

.NET is roughly the equivalent of Java. Personally, I think it's quite a bit nicer in various details, but if you're already happy with Java then there's nothing really fundamentally different.

[starshipeleven]

So you're saying it's a more focused Wine?

No, you can't run native windows .net stuff directly as if your application calls Windows-only functionality it will break.
It can be used to make crossplatform apps, in a similar way to Java.

[bug77]

.NET is roughly the equivalent of Java. Personally, I think it's quite a bit nicer in various details, but if you're already happy with Java then there's nothing really fundamentally different.

I was expecting as much, since it was developed after Java. And it also doesn't care as much about backwards compatibility. I was just wondering if it brings something other than cleaner stuff to the table (not that "cleaner stuff" is something to be ignored. Some unique traits is what I was hoping for instead.