Open Source and Mono Desklets

Published 03 July 07 03:06 PM | jvast 

I run Ubuntu on my main desktop machine at home and I've been watching Mono for quite a while.  I was elated when the Microsoft-Novell agreement was put into place this fall because it meant Mono was getting something like an "official stamp of approval".  Or at a minimum Novell wasn't going to be sued and the project shut down.

Sadly, I think it also meant we're never getting another version of Rotor. 

Why do I run Linxu?  I come from a UNIX background, primarily BSD.  I can't give up an operating system I figuratively grew up on simply because I work for an OS Vendor.   

I digress.  I'll get to the point.

I've been poking around the past weekend looking for Open Source projects using .NET.  I can't find much out there.  It really disappoints me.  Somewhere between the dog just came up and grabbed my ice cream cone kind of disappointment and I just lost my best friend kind of disappointment. 

This last Friday the GPL3 was released.  I could move along this tangent for hours.  I won't, its just an ancillary thought.

There need to be more open source projects using .NET.  I compiled a list of about a dozen projects:

  • Mono
  • Moonlight
  • DasBlog
  • Grasshopper
  • CruiseControl
  • Castle
  • MonoRail
  • Spring.NET
  • MetaLinq
  • Nunit
  • MBUnit
  • DotNetNuke
  • RSS Bandit
  • Zanebug
  • Tackle
  • Reflector
  • Log4NET
  • SharpDevelop
  • Lucene.NET
  • MVP.XMLProject
  • IronPython
  • IronRuby

See, the list is pretty short. Can you help me grow it?  I'm sure I'm missing some.

A shiny spot in this mix has been Moonlight and what the team is calling Desklets.  I was a huge fan of Konfabulator and even paid for a license at one time.  My son came around my desk earlier today and saw a screenshot on Everaldo's blog and exclaimed, "Awesome!". 

I concur. 

 

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# Jonesy99 said on July 3, 2007 6:41 PM:

Here's another

http://sourceforge.net/projects/xacc/

I dev on Windows using .NET but great to see some Linux people getting in on the act with Mono/Moonlight. Mono is definetly gaining some traction now which can only be good for everyone.

# Björn said on July 3, 2007 11:09 PM:

Browse around the projects found on CodePlex [1] -  granted, most/a lot might be libraries only, but that would be a better starting point than the abandoned projects yard that is known as SourceForge :]

[1] http://www.codeplex.com/

# Björn said on July 4, 2007 3:18 PM:

Oh, and the comments at this Coding Horror post [1] do have a nice list of .NET based open source projects, e.g. how can one forget Paint.NET?

[1] http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000894.html#comments

# jvast said on July 4, 2007 4:48 PM:

Bjorn, nice link.  I don't know how I missed that post over at Coding Horror.  I think I can help spotlight the situation.  

Watch for coming focus on Open Source at InfoQ.com in the .NET Q.

# Mat Steeples said on July 4, 2007 4:57 PM:

Beagle - http://beagle-project.org/Main_Page

Banshee - http://banshee-project.org/Main_Page

iFolder - http://www.ifolder.com/index.php/Main_Page

There's loads more out there. Some half decent IM clients are coming along that use telepathy for the backend, and they're gaining traction in the OSS world. As mono gets better, more apps will be written in it.

# A blog to the tune of James said on July 13, 2007 8:48 PM:

So this week I came across a cool new site. DotNetKicks.com This last week Gavin Joyce open-sourced the

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