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A Bare-Bones Linux+Mono+GUI Distro?
nimble99 writes "I am a computer software engineer, focused mainly on the Windows platform — but most of my development time is spent in .NET. I would like to move my .NET development to Linux in the form of Mono, in an attempt at building a media-center type of device. All I require, is a base operating system with simple hardware support, Mono, and a window manager that (preferably) does nothing but act as a host for mono applications. Is this available? I dont know a lot about Linux, so I thought I would ask if there is already something like this available. Obviously a 'Mono Operating System' would be the cleanest solution, but a similar thing could be achieved with the barest minimum of Linux distros right?"
I'm a Windows developer who uses Linux at home.
.NET model and the C# language (Anders Hejlsberg has been my hero ever since he developed Delphi during his Borland years) that I cannot help but prefer its usage, even in a Linux environment.
As a user, I am philosophically opposed to Mono as an unwanted Windows fingerprint on my completely FOSS system (except for my nVidia drivers; alas, I am not perfect).
As a developer, I am so completely convinced of the superiority of the
I'm thinking about developing a split personality to deal with this paradox.
Bah. The yardstick is not 'has nothing to do with Microsoft Windows' but rather 'gives you and others freedom to use, share and change the software'. If you just wanted to eliminate Microsoft you could buy a Mac and not buy Office for it. Mono is completely free and open source software. Yes, it is a clone of a proprietary system, just as GNU started out as a clone of proprietary Unix.
-- Ed Avis ed@membled.com
I've been playing around with Debian Live recently and the level of control you have over package selection and customization is impressive. It takes a little work to get used to the build system and how to customize your final image, but after you get through it once it is very simple.
You also have the ability to build images for CD-Rom's, usb sticks, netboot or hard drive images.
If you are not familiar with Linux, this route may be like jumping into the deep end. As others have mentioned, you may be better off using a canned distro like Monoppix while you do your development so you know exactly what you need in the end. Once you are comfortable and ready to move toward your final product, look towards Debian live.
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I dont know a lot about Linux, so I thought I would ask if there is already something like this available.
Anyway, here is my suggestion, but, as another poster has already pointed out, any Linux/GUI permutation would probably work just as well:
Some people would argue that using Slackware for this is crazy, but (a) Slackware is a lean and mean developement platform, and a very lean Linux distribution and (b) it will teach you a lot of things about Linux, and UNIX in general.
I hope this helps!
The right to offend is far more important than the right not to be offended. (Rowan Atkinson)
Check out Vala: C# like syntax, no runtime, FOSS.
tomorrow who's gonna fuss
And I'd bet money that I'm far from alone in thinking this.
"16MB (fuck off, MiB fascists)" - The Mighty Buzzard
Here's a better example, http://opensimulator.org/
.NET types work, all of our functionality is plugin-based. Physics engines are plugins. Script engines are plugins. Databases are plugins, even NHibernate is a database plugin. Every piece of functionality is a plugin, mostly.
It's written in C#, and using third party physics libraries and translating LSL for scripting. (We also support other languages in the server as well.) We use Mono and it works just fine. In fact, because of the way
Once you get over the "microsoft is an epic patent troll" shit it's actually a very well designed system, WinForms not withstanding.