Now only if .NET adoption on Linux would pick back up like when Mono was pushing it. .NET is a great environment for developing desktop applications and Linux really needs them.
GTK# could use some serious love, as much as I enjoy Vala I would much prefer to be able to use Npgsql for database access than deal with the crapshoot that is libgda. Unfortunately after the GTK3 transition it seems nobody has really felt like maintaining GTK# much, meanwhile plain old C and Vala have been getting all the cool stuff (GTK composite templates, in particular).
GNU Autotools now has vala integration, just specifying .vala files in your source list will have automake run valac to generate the C files, which will then be compiled by GCC automatically. Going one further, the C files get packaged into your distribution tarballs so users don't need valac installed to compile your application.
The usual M4 headaches with autotools apply, but as long as you don't have some crazy build (just compiling libraries/binaries, linking with libraries, use pkg-config) it's not too bad.
As far as testing, GLib.Test [0] is part of the standard library. Since vala compiles to C at the end of the day there's no easy way to test other than just building a test runner, but it's not too bad to work with.
GNOME Builder is finally getting support for Vala in GNOME 3.20, it's still young but hopefully we'll have a first class IDE soon. Still, Builder has a long way to go before it even catches up with MonoDevelop, but progress is good, right?
I built a website that just went live a few days ago (still crazy ugly). It is .NET core on Ubuntu using various Azure Services (nothing fancy, just standard ecommerce... but still):
The biggest hurdle has been dependencies, but support has been improving a lot every month. Getting deployed was initially a pain, but I've found a way to make it smooth. I think soon i'll be writing up how I deal with it. I deploy about 3 times a day without interruption on my single server behind an nginix reverse proxy.
There are some really cool things coming forward in the land of dotnet.core.
Specifically you can now build projects on linux machines. Command line and web are basically a "no brainer" already (even with RC1 and RC-here-be-dragons).
For anyone seriously considering linux desktop apps, the'll want to consider some sort of cross-plat gui library, but there are a number of threads discussing it over at the dotnet foundation and some of the suggestions there seem like real "contenders"
When you're looking at C# vs. Java, I wouldn't be surprised if you found the new openness of dotnetcore to chip away at some of the "base" of Java. Maybe you start to see C# as the goto choice for CompSci classes.
Maybe the face-melting performance benchmarks http://web.ageofascent.com/asp-net-core-exeeds-1-15-million-... (1.15 million requests per second vs. ~150k in nodejs and vs. 50k in .NET46) will have an impact on people interested in lowering their server costs.
C# under dotnet core, when written correctly has the potential to lower latency, require fewer servers, and all sorts of fun stuff.
Fewer servers means lower costs, while lower latency has proven to convert into more users or sales.
Of course, this is all best-case, pollyanna & coming from a bit of a fanboy... so please take what I say with a tiny grain of salt, but I do think this is pretty exciting stuff.
To be fair, I'm so excited about this stuff I'd kindof like for someone to take me down a peg and push a bunch of
counter points at me so I get a more balanced and realistic opinion (just be nice OK?).