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Microsoft starts to open source .NET and take it cross-platform to Mac, Linux

Microsoft today announced plans to open source .NET, the company’s software framework that primarily runs on Windows, and release it on GitHub. Microsoft also unveiled plans to take .NET cross-platform by targeting both Mac OS X and Linux.

In the next release, Microsoft plans to open source the entire .NET server stack, from ASP.NET 5 down to the Common Language Runtime and Base Class Libraries. The company will let developers build .NET cloud applications on multiple platforms; it is promising future support of the .NET Core server runtime and framework for Mac and Linux.

See also: Everything Microsoft announced today for Visual Studio, including a new free version

S. Somasegar, Corporate Vice President of the Developer Division at Microsoft, explained the move to VentureBeat very simply: Open sourcing .NET will help “get more developers onto the platform” as well as “let existing .NET developers target more users.”

This is a long-term bet. Somasegar also hinted that taking .NET cross-platform would help the company partner with additional platform and tools vendors across the industry and eventually grow the .NET ecosystem.

The move is being implemented and supported by Microsoft, but the company had help. The new version of .NET was developed as open source in close collaboration with the Mono project and community.

For context, Mono is an open source implementation of Microsoft’s .NET Framework. The end goal for Microsoft and the Mono group is to jointly deliver an open-source, enterprise-ready .NET server implementation to Windows, OS X, and Linux.

Microsoft says the implementation will provide “a full stack for the server, including runtime and class libraries, and will be part of the .NET Foundation.” If you’ve been reading in shock until now, this is exactly the point where a lightbulb should go on above your head.

At its Build conference in April, Microsoft announced that it was open sourcing 24 of its .NET libraries and related technologies. That’s when it created the .NET Foundation, a group for overseeing its open source .NET components. Now the foundation has received its biggest task yet: Over the next several months, it will be open sourcing the remainder of the .NET Core Runtime and .NET Core Framework.

Today’s move is therefore the next logical step, although it feels more like a full sprint. To any developer who has ever written code using Microsoft technologies, it may be a bit of a surprise. Nonetheless, Microsoft is urging interested developers to join and participate in these projects by visiting the .NET Foundation website and its related repositories.

More information:

Microsoft Corporation is a public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through ... read more »

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127 comments
A Trober
A Trober

managed code IS open source, just reverse the MSIL back to source (e.g. Lutz Roeder's Reflector, bought by RedGate, or write your own).


You can NGEN it, like core libraries in the framework.  I'm not sure what value there is in having those open sourced, ???  There's Mono to run on *nix (stay close to the beaten path only, though...a mixed blessing, because Microsoft's documentation is marketing literature first, technical doc second...giving examples that are little more than proprietary lock-in and recurring revenue strategies.


Also, why would someone want .Net on a LAMP stack?  Stick with apples-to-apples, oranges-to-oranges.  

A Trober
A Trober

Sign of the times, Node.js and LAMP are eating .Net's lunch.

Kirt Liedahl
Kirt Liedahl

Awesome- and by "Awesome" I mean "GROSS"

Leonardo Bragatti
Leonardo Bragatti

A gente usa o Mono, que é uma tentativa do Miguel de Icaza de fazer isso. Só que ainda falta muita coisa, mas acho que agora o negócio vai ficar lindo

Greg Georges
Greg Georges

You still have to run it on crappy Microsoft server and IIS. This makes no difference at all

Quynh Nguyen
Quynh Nguyen

Còm linh tinh quá (tin từ hôm qua, giờ này mới đọc thì còm làm giè???)

Thomas Wiese
Thomas Wiese

Haha as if it still would matter. They still will go down, damn microshit.

Joe Holla
Joe Holla

The NEW .NET 4.5+ w/ MVC4 & razor in the views is actually nice. It's vastly diff than old ASP.NET.

built
built

@jc00ke it's unfortunate that .net (C# in particular) is still stuck with the Java albatross around it's neck. There's no comparison.

Dan Chill
Dan Chill

I think more developers would prefer a WebKit default renderer for IE

Kleber Correia
Kleber Correia

Leonardo vc usa uma ferramenta q faz isso, ñ é?

David Yo
David Yo

MS easily the best developer tools and this is clearly targeting becoming the platform for startups. Azure's Windows/SQL pricing still needs to be more competitive with open-source alternatives

Paul Georges
Paul Georges

Mono is already cross platform and more enjoyable to work with.

vashisthg
vashisthg

@wesleybliss They've open sourced Visual Studio too and making android emulator too! MS .Net could be more open than Oracle's java!

Pin Head
Pin Head

I  jizzed  in my pants.


Alberto Solano
Alberto Solano

Java is like a plague unleashed upon man. Nice move MS

A Trober
A Trober

"Vastly" different?  IF you do *not* develop the way Microsoft's (marketing-authored) technical documentation says to.


it's just aspx with "Controller", "Model", etc. in the same ol' monolithic stack o' crap.

A Trober
A Trober

@s1m0nw @VentureBeat @Microsoft ...those that don't want vendor-dependent recurring revenue strategies controlling them.  aka Microsoft's forte


jc00ke
jc00ke

@built I never disliked C#. Fond memories of the start of my career programming. Seemed to move faster than Java IIRC.

built
built

@jc00ke it definitely has. Some awkward parts to be sure, and some missteps around ecosystem and architecture, but I enjoy the language.