[i386]

> Mono never succeeded on Linux because it always felt like a second-class citizen on the desktop

Err, I'm not sure where you were from 2005 to 2009...

There were apps like Tomboy that were included in GNOME releases that were 100% written in C# and run by Mono. GTK# was one of the most complete bindings ever written for GNOME/GTK.

If you've ever written a GObject or GTK based app you would know its not easy to do in C. With GTK#, you could build something very quick with a modern virtual machine, framework bindings for pretty much the entire free desktop stack (they automatically generated them and kept them up to date with every release), high level language and IDE with great syntax highlighting and autocomplete.

What did happen was a massive irrational backlash against C# by neckbeards that ended with it being kicked out of GNOME core and off the debian and ubuntu install CD's, all because they saw Microsoft name against the standard, didn't agree with the patents (a fact of life when you build software) and bricked themselves.

[bad_user]

On desktop Linux, Mono's direct competition is not C++, but rather Python.

Also, Mono apps were replaced in Ubuntu/Debian because of Mono's large footprint, both in memory and in disk usage (until recently, Ubuntu has been constrained for a long time to the size of one CD). Also development died and these distros are distributing by default apps that are actively developed and maintained.

[i386]

> On desktop Linux, Mono's direct competition is not C++, but rather Python.

And the IDE support still sucks and the bindings are patchy at best (but admittedly better now because there is only 1 person working on GTK compared to the ten or fifteen who contributed back in the day and they release a lot less).

> Also, Mono apps were replaced in Ubuntu/Debian because of Mono's large footprint, both in memory and in disk usage

Thinly veiled bullshit if you ask me. If they were worried about package sizes, there were a lot of other things (like sample photos, movies, music, Open Office bloat, shipping multiple library versions, etc) that they could have cut back on if they got serious.

Regardless, the FOSS community shot themselves in the foot by jettisoning one of the most complete platforms that actually had decent developer tools.

[yulaow]

For gtk at the moment the "main" language is becoming Vala, who is more... mh, trusted than mono and strongly more supported by all the gtk developers

[yapcguy]

For reference, C# vs Vala:

https://wiki.gnome.org/Vala/ValaForCSharpProgrammers

[_random_]

Oh, so that's what is required to fix things - yet another C-derived language?