Developing C# on Linux

Question

I\'d like to know if there are effective and open source tools to develop C# applications on Linux (Ubuntu). In particular, I have to develop Windows Forms applications.

Answer 1

Mono is a runtime environment that can run .NET applications and that works on both Windows and Linux. It includes a C# compiler.

As an IDE, you could use MonoDevelop, and I suppose there's something available for Eclipse, too.

Note that WinForms support on Mono is there, but somewhat lacking. Generally, Mono developers seem to prefer different GUI toolkits such as Gtk#.

Answer 2

Mono Develop is what you want, if you have used visual studio you should find it simple enough to get started.

If I recall correctly you should be able to install with sudo apt-get install monodevelop

Answer 3

I would suggest using MonoDevelop.

It is pretty much explicitly designed for use with Mono, and all set up to develop in C#.

The simplest way to install it on Ubuntu would be to install the monodevelop package in Ubuntu. (link on Mono on ubuntu.com) (However, if you want to install a more recent version, I am not sure which PPA would be appropriate)

However, I would not recommend developing with the WinForms toolkit - I do not expect it to have the same behavior in Windows and Mono (the implementations are pretty different). For an overview of the UI toolkits that work with Mono, you can go to the information page on Mono-project.

Answer 4

Now Microsoft is migrating to open-source - see CoreFX (GitHub).

Answer 5

MonoDevelop, the IDE associated with Mono Project should be enough for C# development on Linux. Now I don't know any good profilers and other tools for C# development on Linux. But then again mind you, that C# is a language more native to windows. You are better developing C# apps for windows than for linux.

EDIT: When you download MonoDevelop from the Ubuntu Software Center, it will contain pretty much everything you need to get started right away (Compiler, Runtime Environment, IDE). If you would like more information, see the following links:

• http://monodevelop.com/
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MonoDevelop
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mono_%28software%29
• http://www.mono-project.com/Development_Environments

Answer 6

This is an old question but it has a high view count, so I think some new information should be added: In the mean time a lot has changed, and you can now also use Microsoft's own .NET Core on linux. It's also available in ARM builds, 32 and 64 bit.