Hi all,

Developing and delivering software like Mono is not an easy task and a 
complex engineering project. We're committed to delivering Mono 1.0 in 
June and supporting the Linux x86, MacOS X platforms, have no doubt 
about that. As you know we also intend to provide support for Solaris 
and Linux PPC. We're also committed to delivering GTK# 1.0 in this 
release and SWF by the end of the year.

We are privileged to observe the evolution of Mono on a daily basis. In 
my previous job, building from the source was something you didn't want 
to do unless you had to, builds were often broken and unreliable. A 
good build, one QA could work on, was a rare commodity. Most of us 
build Mono from CVS everyday with its share of frustration and 
disillusions but all in all, it often works. My main machine is a 
Powerbook running MacOS X but I also run Linux PPC, Linux x86 and 
Windows XP ; I have to because like Miguel, our Ximian engineers and 
all the good people contributing to Mono, I want to make sure we 
deliver on our promises. And because I mainly use MacOS X, I harass 
Miguel everyday about bugs I find. Mono on PPC has been frustrating in 
the last few weeks but I run 0.31 with some success. Recently, Miguel 
asked Martin to help out on PPC ; with his involvement in addition to 
Paolo's and Miguel's, I am confident we'll be successful.

Erik Dasque
Product Manager for Mono, Ximian.
Office: (+1) 617 613 2009
Cell:    (+1) 617 953 9104
edasque <at> ximian.com

On Apr 9, 2004, at 1:07 AM, Steve Mentzer wrote:

>
> Sadly, I must agree. The mono team have made excellent progress on 
> bringing PPC into the JIT era.... but.....
>
> On a whim, I decided to install fedora core 1 and build mono. It built 
> and installed without incident. Truly remarkable. I must say that I 
> was impressed. XSP kept crashing, but that is a different story...
>
> On x86 hardware, I prefer windows xp/2003. Sorry, I love *nix, but 
> linux doesn't do much for me on x86, especially when x86/windows 
> offers 100% compatibility and killer dev tools. Frankly, there is no 
> real reason to host asp.net apps under apache, when my XP box does 
> better after locking it down. No religion here folks, just reality.
>
> OS/X and PPC is a different story. This is a situation that is DYING 
> for an x86 crossover platform. Don't talk to me about Java.... if I 
> wanted java, I wouldn't be using mono or c#.
>
> C++/wxWindows/Qt/GTK/etc... yawn. Once again, I want c#.
>
> Mono on the PPC is painful. There is no *documented*, stable or 
> official GUI toolkit support. Hell, even the core runtime is about as 
> stable as IIS 4. :)
>
> Beyond that, the mono releases are hit and miss. You have about a 75% 
> chance of the build failing or getting the dreaded 'bus error'.
>
> I appreciate the new features and the roadmap, but if all mono has to 
> offer is x86/linux stability, then mono has only succeeded in doing is 
> providing a 'free' implementation of the .net runtime that runs on the 
> same commodity hardware that a fully supported and commercial version 
> runs on.
>
> Mono cannot win if it sticks to the 'linux vs. windows' card. Linux 
> hacks hate MS and C# and .NET. Corporate windows users will be 
> reluctant to adopt linux/mono when they can get a fully supported, 
> commercial version from MS that will run on the same hardware. Believe 
> it or not, most windows shops adopting .NET don't care about OS 
> licensing costs or security. They are interested in RAD. So mono is a 
> little like selling ice cubes to the eskimos.
>
> Now, if mono ran reliably on HPUX, sparc, linux, os/x, windows, *bsd 
> and some other *nix variants, then you would have succeeded in beating 
> MS at their own game. The only argument against .net now is that it 
> isn't cross platform. If mono fills that niche, then the sky is the 
> limit.
>
> No offense to the mono team, but you should either drop support for 
> PPC entirely or actually concentrate on getting it as stable as 
> x86/linux.
>
> Sorry for the long rant guys... its been a long day... :)
>
>
> Original Message -----------------------
>> my  problem with gtk# personally is that mac os x is not supported.
>> although you can find people who hacked it together, if  you co it
>> from cvs, and install it, the samples don't work. i don't have a linux
>> box, only a mac, and i would love to play with mono on it, but it's
>> been two months now, and i don't feel any closer.
>>
>> there are also problems with xsp, and sometimes mono doesn't compile
>> either (i mean cvs version).
>> regards,
>
> Grudgingly, I have to agree with above statement(s).  Mono support for
> Mac OS X/ PPC is fragile at best.  I even tried to put together a page
> on the basic steps (
> http://homepage.mac.com/griffincaprio/mono/RunningMonoOnMacOSX.html ),
> but I have all but given up trying to maintain that page.  This is
> because mono not reliable from day to day, release to release, on the
> PPC / Mac OS X platform.
>
> I am not saying that running off the CVS tree is the most stable way to
> work, but this goes for the releases also.  0.29 worked on the PPC,
> 0.30 didn't  without some major hacking.  0.31 doesn't work reliably,
> either.
>
> Some of the steps I have taken to compile mono include:
> - configure switches
> - external, 3rd party source downloads
> - editing actual code/headers to accommodate the PPC platform.
>
> What's worse, is that when I encounter errors, i receive almost no help
> on the mailing lists.  Some of these are not doubt strange errors, and
> some are very common, but my posts go unanswered either way.
>
> I haven't even gotten to gtk#...
>
> Segmentation faults, bus errors, frozen compiles, etc....  The list
> goes on and on.  I hope to come back to mono in a few months, when/if
> PPC support is better.  But for now, I feel that it's a lost cause.
>
> - Griffin
>
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