Mono brings Visual Basic programs to Linux

[freebird]

Feb. 20, 2007

The Mono Project on Feb. 20 announced that it has developed a Visual Basic compiler that will enable software developers who use Microsoft Visual Basic to run their applications on any platform that supports Mono, such as Linux, without any code modifications.
Though often disparaged by developers, Visual Basic remains one of the world's most commonly used programming languages. According to Forrester Research, 37 percent of enterprises use Microsoft Visual Basic.NET for development and maintenance of their in-house applications. What's more, among .NET developers, 59 percent use Visual Basic.NET as their only programming language. Thus, as of 2006, at least 20 percent of all in-house business programs were still being written in Basic, according to the market analyst firm.

Until now, Visual Basic applications could only run on Windows OSes, without major modifications. With the Mono Visual Basic compiler, however, those applications will be able to run on many more platforms. As a proof point of this new platform independence, the new compiler is self-hosting. That is, the complier itself is written in Visual Basic.

source/read full:
http://desktoplinux.com/news/NS3057967810.html

Another reason for Windows developers/programmers to move/try Open SOurce Platform-GNU/Linux

[Tech.Masti]

wow....good news man, thanks

[mehulved]

It's claimed that MS-Novell deal has nothing to do with this. But, who knows. Also, is this compiler under GPL or compatible license. Otherwise it's something to be vary of.

[it_waaznt_me]

Is this part of the recent Novell-Microsoft agreement?

No. The Mono project is sponsored by Novell, but it is not part of the technical cooperation agreement announced between Novell and Microsoft in November 2006. Mono developers have been working on the compiler for some time. It is a significant technical achievement. Since it is open source, the technology is available for others to use.

Source

[mehulved]

That's nice. Their roadmap looks promising too.
I don't know much about this but how good/bad is it that the compiler is developed in VB.Net.