VS.Net Apps Can Now Run On Linux

MxTxL writes "EWeek is reporting here about a plugin for Visual Studio.Net, called Grasshopper, that allows web applications that once only ran on IIS to be run on Tomcat or other J2EE platforms. The Mainsoft Developer Zone has more details on how it works but basically it converts the MS Intermediate Language into Java bytecode. The developer is also a supporter of the Mono Project."

Comments

Well...

[Darren Winsper]

Considering that, using XSP or mod_mono, it's possible to run ASP.Net web applications on Linux using Mono itself, this is hardly a new development.

Anyhow, there's no such thing as a "VS.Net App". It's been possible to compile .Net applications using VS.Net and run them on Mono (with certain exceptions) for a long time now.

Re:Well...

[hey!]

Well, I'd say you're the victim of another poorly titled article.

I'd have titled it "VS.Net applications now run on J2EE Servlet Containers".

Personally, I think this is cool, but not Earth shaking. The most important reasons for users to do this would be to either migrate to J2EE or to get access to Java standard libraries. Since people on the MS side of the fence tend to rely heavily on the IDE to do a lot of the heavy lifting, I'm not sure it helps them that much. They can't maintain the software except by targeting the dotNet environment; their IDE doesn't know anything about the Java standard libraries or the J2EE container facilities. Maybe if they wanted to prototype stuff in VS IDE and then add things like security using filters or byte code modification to do AOPish method interception.

In any case I see three possible applications. First, if some horrible security hole is found in IIS, you can get off in a hurry and deal with the maintenance issues down the line. Second, you may decide to use this to scale a successful application up using midrange iron. Third, you can show your boss that servlet containers do everything your application needs (but we all knew that, didn't we)?

Re:Well...

[Locutus]

This all reminds me of how Microsoft got many of the UNIX CAD and EDA tools vendors to drop native UNIX coding for Win32 coding. They provided Mainsoft, Bristol, and others with a cheap license to the Win32 source code, which allowed them to sell tools which compiled Win32 apps to run on UNIX. The apps vendors liked this because one codebase supported both Windows AND UNIX. But then, Microsoft quadrupled the license fee for the Win32 source and only one vendor could afford to pay that new fee. The same vendor Microsoft hired to port MS Internet Explorer to UNIX. They did this so that they could afford to pay that huge licensing fee and provide proof in court that the increased fee was not excessive and preditory. All of a sudden, the CAD and EDA software that used to run on both Windows and UNIX, only ran on Windows. And porting back to UNIX would have been almost impossible because of the nice job Microsoft does at not supporting standards or best software practices for design.

Mainsoft is that one company which Microsoft funded while it killed off the others. Mainsoft is the one announcing a tool that'll let you write software in Microsofts API( .Net this time ) and run it on other systems. Gee, where do you think this will end up going?

IMO. History IS the best teacher.

LoB

Mono's XSP does this too

[darnok]

I'm in the early stages of experimenting with Mono's XSP as a drop-in replacement for ASP.NET. Looks quite promising at this stage, but I've got a lot more testing to do before I'll be turning off banks of Windows/ASP.NET servers and replacing them with Linux/XSP.

Still, nice to know there's an alternative if for some reason XSP doesn't work out.

Re:Mono's XSP does this too

[sosume]

Lol, check the mainsoft homepage ...

HTTP Status 404 - /index.aspx

type Status report

message /index.aspx

description The requested resource (/index.aspx) is not available.
Apache Tomcat/5.0.28

java ripoff

[tines]

so the .net is really a java ripoff. the bytecode maps amazingly well. +1 obvious

Stop - don't do it

[tezbobobo]

It's all a microsoft conspiracy to prove that linux is the more insecure system - now vulnerable to the vast raft of windows insecurities. Muwhahahaha!!!!

Vanilla please

[asliarun]

I think that half-baked solutions like this plugin is a bad idea, at least for code that will land up in production servers. I would prefer a vanilla implementation anyday. By porting a .NET assembly (or IL code) to Java bytecode, i would be unnecessarily increasing the chances of getting wierd or untraceable bugs. Then, there's the question of maintaining the ported code.

A better albeit more time-consuming solution would be to rewrite the source code itself. The plugin in question might possibly be of some use if we need to quickly port a small application from .NET to Java. But for an enterprise or complex system, no way!

Re:Maybe im missing something here..

[mattyrobinson69]

the whole point of .NET was so they had yet another buzzword to throw around:

PHB: Is this 'Linux' thingy written in .NET?
tech: no.
PHB: does it leverage the power of XML?
tech: er, no

thats all i'm afraid, my buzzword library has gone blank.

Anyone bother to read the EULA?

[Decker-Mage]

Well I did. Guess what, bring money if you want to deploy using this beast. Here's the limitation right from the EULA:

"Small Workgroup Configuration" means a Java-based hardware and software configuration supporting the execution of a Developer Application and limited to (a) Apache Tomcat excluding any other J2EE application servers and (b) single CPU (Central Processing Unit) computers excluding computers with multiple CPUs' and excluding cluster or grid of computers.

You can forget running on your personal multiple cpu development machine, let alone anywhere reasonable, unless you pay the price. It ain't free folks!

I went digging to find the price for deploying it on anything but what they consider a workgroup machine. You'll find that in What are the licensing terms for Grasshopper. Bring lots of money! At least MS gouges me only once.

I believe I'll stick to doing my own porting, thank ye!

Hooray!

[Greyfox]

All the ease of use of Linux combined with all the security of Windows! My prayers are answered!

Yeah... that's just what the world needed...

Re:so stupid it hurts

[namekuseijin]

"1. Java and the developnent platform is FREE."

Free as in beer. The same as the .Net platform and command-line tools, btw...

"2. Java has an On-Line users manual that is top notch."

same for .Net, like it or not.

"3. Java is not Microsoft"

Nope. But it should read: "Sun is not M$ ( though they would really love to be )".

Or .Net is M$'s Java libraries and C# their java language...

"4. Java has way better 3rd party SDKs (I.E. eclipse) than .NET"

IDEs are for losers. Gimme a powerful, expressive language ( Python, Ruby, Haskell, Ocaml ), capable of yielding the power of ten java imports in a sentence, and a good text-editor ( XEmacs ) and i'm sold.