.NET on LINUX

With the release of Mono - the open-source implementation of the .NET runtime on LINUX - cross-platform capabilities are making an appearance for native .NET applications.

With the ease of building a Web Service Layer using .NET SOAP to expose legacy application functionality, integration using the .NET platform has been quicker and easier than going with a proprietary EAI product such as WebMethods. However - this type of SOAP based integration does not count as true cross-platform functionality - it merely exists as an alternative solution to building cross-platform solutions. With the appearance of Mono (an open source .NET runtime implementation on Linux), .NET has come one step closer to providing true cross-platform capability. Mono will likely be plagued with similar incompatibilities as were found across the various J2EE application server products. More specifically - a good chunk (10% may be a reasonable guess) of the application will need to be re-written before it can be successfully ported from say Windows to Linux. However - the process of discovering (and re-writing) that '10%' will be a lot quicker than doing so across J2EE servers.