MONO an open-source project that brings the .NET server technology to non-Microsoft platforms such as Linux, HP-UX, Solaris, and Mac OS X. .NET is more than just a Web application development framework, and this project aims to provide that framework as open source. Although Microsoft is starting to embrace its shared source model, in which some development partners can get source code, it will be quite expensive and retain many limitations of closed source. The open source model still guarantees that there are no restrictions and encourages customizing and redistribution.

MONO is worthwhile in itself as a development platform. There is some chance that Microsoft will change the specification or make undocumented changes, although it has shown some interest in other implementations of .NET. Again, however, there is no true support from Microsoft.

In the ASP.NET realm, we’re really talking more about mod_mono, the Apache module that implements MONO for Web services. Like the MONO project itself, this project is still under development and is not a completed implementation of the ASP.NET framework. Because MONO is still under development and relies on many libraries that don’t fully implement the Win32 platform, it’s safer to think of MONO as a third option for Web development, after PHP and ASP.NET, but one that has a lot in common with ASP.NET. As such, it provides much of the functionality and framework of .NET, including a C# compiler, but is not a Microsoft-supported development environment. You’re dependent on the community for developing the code (and indirectly Novell, which is supporting the project). In that way, it has a lot in common with PHP for Web development, because you can choose Apache for your Web server, build mod_mono as a module just like PHP, and sidestep all the licensing issues related to traditional ASP.NET development on Windows servers.