May 30, 2025

For a new project, I need to help a client with a .NET application, and I decided to use Mono to run it on Linux.

I did a few projects with Mono in the past, but it has been a while since I used it last time..

At the time, I had a Windows machine with Visual Studio, but this time I would like to use Linux. It will be a good opportunity to see how Mono has evolved in the last few years.

Mono is an open-source implementation of Microsoft’s .NET Framework, originally developed by Xamarin (formerly Ximian) in the early 2000s. It was created to bring .NET applications to Linux and other non-Windows platforms at a time when Microsoft had not yet embraced open source or cross-platform support.

Written primarily in C, Mono provides a C# compiler and a Common Language Runtime (CLR) for Unix-like systems. It was essential for early adopters of .NET who wanted to develop or run managed code on Linux servers, embedded systems, or macOS.

Over time, Mono matured to support large portions of .NET, including WinForms, ASP.NET, and later .NET Core features. It became the foundation for frameworks like Unity and Xamarin, enabling cross-platform game and mobile development.