Όπως ανακοινώθηκε πρόσφατα η συνεργασία της Microsoft με την Novel έφερε το εξής αποτέλεσμα, την Novel να λανσάρει τα Mono Tools For Visual Studio στους χρήστες του Linux. Με αυτό τον τρόπο πλέον οι developers και όχι μόνο που χρησιμοποιούν την ανοιχτή πλατφόρμα του Linux μπορούν πλέον να δημιουργούν (build) αλλά και να διορθώνουν (debug) χρησιμοποιόντας το Visual Studio.

Φυσικά το συγκεκριμένο δεν περιορίζεται μόνο στο Linux, αλλά και για Unix αλλά και Mac OS X. και όπως ανέφερε η Novel:

"Mono Tools for Visual Studio is a commercial solution that enables C# and .NET developers trained in Microsoft Visual Studio to stay within their preferred IDE, and use their existing skills and extensive .NET ecosystem of code, libraries and tools to develop or port applications to Linux, UNIX or Mac OS X. Prior to Mono Tools, .NET application porting required developers to invest heavily in learning new programming tools and rewriting/re-architecting applications. With Mono Tools, developers trained in the popular Visual Studio IDE can utilize their existing skills and expertise to build multi-platform applications and identify related issues, isolating and fixing them directly within Visual Studio."

Με αυτόν τον τρόπο η Microsoft & η Novel δίνουν τελικά την δυνατότητα στους developers να διευρύνουν των ‘χώρο εργασίας’ τους.

"Key features of Mono Tools for Visual Studio include:

· Development and porting of .NET applications to Linux, UNIX and Mac OS X with analysis, testing, debugging and deployment all from within Visual Studio. Using Mono Tools for Visual Studio, ISVs, corporate developers and development services providers can dramatically cut the costs of multi-platform application development and save time in porting existing .NET applications to non-Windows platforms.

· Creation of turnkey virtual appliances and software appliances for .NET applications using integrated appliance building functionality. Mono Tools for Visual Studio delivers out-of-the-box integration with SUSE Studio Online, an innovative, easy-to-use hosted tool that enables users to rapidly build and test appliances based on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server or openSUSE. ISVs and development services providers can immediately fulfill demand for appliance versions of their existing applications, thus increasing revenue opportunities while simplifying application support and accelerating sales cycles.

· Integrated porting analysis tools that provide .NET developers a road-map to Linux, Mac OS X and UNIX. Many .NET developers today lack an approach or even an idea of where to begin an application port to non-Windows platforms, a challenge quickly solved with Mono Tools.

· Ability to run and debug applications in Mono within Visual Studio to isolate incompatibilities between Mono and .NET and between Linux and Windows—issues which may affect cross-platform application development.

· Automated packaging for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server and openSUSE to prepare applications for immediate deployment on Linux.

"With Mono Tools for Visual Studio, we are bridging the gap between Visual Studio, one of the world's leading development platforms, and Linux, one of the world's leading deployment platforms," said Miguel de Icaza, Mono project founder and vice president of Developer Platforms at Novell. "Customers have been asking us for an easier, [simpler] and streamlined process [by which] to port their .NET applications to Linux, UNIX and Mac. By integrating our tools right into Visual Studio, we are enabling developers familiar with Windows and .NET to quickly bring their applications to the Linux market, and ISVs to offer their software as ready-to-run appliances."

Τα Mono Tools θα είναι διαθέσιμα σε τρεις εκδόσεις.

• Professional Edition - 99$
• Enterprise Edition - 249$ ανά developer
• Ultimate Edition – 2.499$ που εμπεριέχει limited commercial license to redistribute Mono on Windows, Linux and Mac OS X και είναι 5 άδειες enterprise developer

Τα σχόλια δικά σας.

πηγές: http://www.eweek.com , http://tech.yahoo.com,