.NET and Mono: two platforms, one idea
The vast majority of personal computers in the world today run on Windows operating systems. So it's fair to say that application development for Windows is extremely relevant and will continue to be so. And as we see it, the best answer to the question of Windows development is the .NET Framework from Microsoft.
Microsoft .NET Framework: all the power of Windows technologies at your command!
The .NET platform offers a vast selection of high-quality tools for application development: support for a large number of programming languages (including the most popular ones – C# and VB.NET), an all-encompassing base class library, program frameworks for creating desktop and web applications (Windows Forms and ASP.NET), and much more. But it doesn't stop there!
The platform's internal features are just a small portion of this powerful creation: the entire might of Windows technologies stands behind the .NET Framework. When developing on this platform, you enjoy enormous opportunities for integration with all popular Windows applications. Visual Studio, Word, Excel, Outlook, Internet Explorer, MSSQL, SharePoint—all of these are now at your beck and call. By combining this with the technical opportunities of the platform itself, developers can solve practically any task related to website or Windows application development!
All the same, the platform's main advantage also formed one of its main drawbacks: being so Windows-centric, any cross-platform compatibility was cut out of the picture entirely. Applications written in .NET could not be launched on Unix-like operating systems such as Linux and Mac OS X. But all of this changed when Novell announced its new creation: the Mono platform.
Mono = .NET made cross-platform
In essence, Novell Mono is an open-source implementation of the .NET Framework for Unix-like operating systems. The main goal of the developers was to create a full-fledged implementation of Microsoft's .NET platform, based on open-source software. And they have done so in spades: the Mono platform includes compilers for C# and VB.NET, implements Windows Forms and ASP.NET, supports LINQ, and much more. Now .NET applications can be made truly cross-platform, without any substantial source code modifications.
The .NET Framework and Mono are platforms that we know how to use and love using.
