Novell Plug-In Lets Linux Developers Use Visual Studio

Novell has launched a plug-in for Microsoft’s Visual Studio that goes a step closer to allowing developers to build .Net-compatible Linux applications within a Microsoft development environment.

Novell positions Mono Tools for Visual Studio, which came out last week, as a tool to help users combine Linux and Microsoft operating systems in their businesses. The plug in will help developers take applications built for Microsoft’s .Net framework and Windows, and port them onto Linux, Novell says.

Both Windows Server and Linux are growing their share of servers within data centres and Microsoft and Novell have a pact to promote interoperoperability. On 9 December, eWEEK Europe is running a web seminar exploring the potential for interoperability between the two operating systems within modern virtualised data centres.

The Mono plug-in, which Novell describes as “the first commercial development tool for the rapid creation of .Net applications for Linux, Unix and Mac OS X within Visual Studio”, came out of the Mono project to develop an open source version of the .Net framework, which was started by Ximian, an open source company bought by Novell in 2003.

The plug-in includes a debugging engine, integrates with Visual Studio pull-down menus, and provides output that works with Novell’s development environment, SuSE.

The announcement came right after Microsoft and Novell celebrated the third anniversary of their partnership, designed to push the integration of SuSE Linux and Windows Server in the data centre, along with more controversial protection against patents which Microsoft claims Linux infringes.

Novell has also brought out a new version of OpenSuSE, the freely-available community distribution it sponsors, alongside the commercial release, SuSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES).

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