Mono is designed to enable developers to build Linux and cross-platform applications and includes a C Sharp compiler and .NET-compatible runtime engine as well as two stacks of application programming interfaces.
The project was begun in July 2001 by Linux desktop specialist Ximian Inc and continued after the company was acquired by Waltham, Massachusetts-based Novell in August 2003. The first beta was released in May, since when more than 50,000 copies of the software have been downloaded.
As well as version 1.0 of the completed product, Novell has also launched a new web site for potential Mono users (as opposed to Mono contributing developers) at www.mono-project.com. The site includes tools, resources, road maps and other information about the Mono project.
In addition to Linux, Mono also supports deployment on Microsoft’s Windows NT and XP, as well as Sun Microsystems Inc’s Solaris, Apple Computer Inc’s MacOS X, and various other Unix flavors.
The two application programming interface stacks include one group of APIs that take advantage of Linux servers and desktops and one that provides compatibility with Microsoft’s .NET Framework 1.1, including the ASP.NET and ADO.NET components.
With version 1.0 of Mono now released, work is already underway on the forthcoming 1.2 and 2.0 updates, keeping tracks of Microsoft developments for the Visual Studio 2005 Whidbey release of the .NET Framework as well as more components not stable enough for the 1.0 release.
Scheduled for release in the fourth quarter of 2004 Mono 1.2 will add ASP.NET 2.0 improvements, support for generic types, System.XML and remoting improvements from Whidbey, new compilers and consoles, and serial port support.
The company is also targeting the second quarter of 2005 for the release of Mono 2.0, to include updates to System.XML, ASP.NET, and Windows.Forms to match the .NET Framework 2.0 API.
