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I was wondering. What do you guys think about ASP.NET future on linux? I dont know much about IIS and i know some things about linux. I dont want to program anything in php and while searching for host i have a difficult time finding a host i like on windows.

I would like to develop apps without thinking too much about the platform hence the question. What do you guys think about ASP.NET future on linux? Do you think its going to catch on and more then 25% of linux (shared) host supporting ASP or do you think ASP.NET will be on windows for a much longer time before anything will happen?

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Tooling and support has been steadily improving for many years now but the hosting community has been very slow to adopt mono and provide preconfigured mono hosting environments.

There are very few providers who already support this. The mono project keeps a small list here: http://www.mono-project.com/FAQ:_ASP.NET#Hosting

Having said that, it is simple to create your own hosting environment for Mono if you use either a dedicated server or a shared virtual server. There are plenty of hosting providers who will give you root access to a Virtual Linux host for prices comparable to shared hosting providers.

In answer to your question, there is not going to be 25% of shared hosting providers offering mono on Linux anytime soon. It would be nice but it's not going to happen. There are however, good alternatives.

grenade
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If you get a private server instead of relying on shared hosting you'll like what the mono-project can run as an ASP.NET app. But for shared hosting most providers will find the process to be difficult to limit and thus share fairly.

dlamblin
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MonoDevelop is a cross platform IDE that can be used to write C# and VB programs, including ASP.NET that can access the Mono Framework which is an open source version of .net.

The mono project has worked hard at getting ASP.NET to work well on the Linux platform by creating Apache websever modules that allow .net web applications to run on the mono framework. MySQL has also created database providers to allow .net applications to access their database. There is also the XSP webserver which is used for local devlopment of ASP.NET web applications on the mono framework.

So with all of that work going on, and with the support of the Mono-Project from Novel, I believe that seeing asp.net on Linux will become more common as time goes on.

Hope this help some.

Chris
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Telerik -- as standard a .NET framework as you can get -- is completely certified using Mono.( http://www.telerik.com/company/press-center/company-news/telerik-announces-support-for-mono.aspx ) That speaks to the maturity and compatibility of Mono's implementation of the various ECMA standards involved as well as its growing viability for vanilla production ASP.NET apps. I don't think the Linux community or the .NET community as a whole will embrace Mono wholeheartedly (it doesn't really fit either of their worldviews), but I believe that the Mono folks and Novell are committed to supporting and improving the project. In short, Mono will always be small niche, but I think it will stay current and compatible. I say go for it. C# is a lovely language, and Linux is a lovely OS.

Johnnie Odom
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Anything .Net will always be a second-class citizen on Linux. And there really is no developing software without thinking about the platform to some degree. However, that being said, you might want to consider developing in Java, since common tools are available on Windows & Linux.

Joe Internet
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  • This is probably not what OP wanted to hear, but it's *so* true, I'll +1 you. – wzzrd Dec 23 '09 at 15:44
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    Java is a step backwards. I rather be exclusive to windows then be force to use java. Good answer tho. –  Dec 24 '09 at 03:33