LAMP.NET (Linux Apache Mono.NET PostreSQL)

As an ASP.NET developer I’ve always worked for companies which had little or no support for any environments other than Windows. But the situation is reversed at my current client. Most development is done in Java or PHP with an Oracle back end.

As a Microsoft developer I am in the minority here. The project I am working on is an ASP.NET rewrite of a rare classic ASP application within the organization. During ramp up, we decided that ASP.NET MVC would be a good fit (an a whole lot of fun).

The project is going well and there is a company conference coming up where I’ve been asked to speak on MVC. But since .NET developers are the minority I thought it would be interesting to more attendees if I were to include a demo of using MVC with Mono. As I was thinking about the title of the presentation I was trying to think of a way to indicate that I would also be addressing use of Linux and Apache in the hopes of generating more interest (nobody wants to be the presenter who only gets a couple of attendees to show up for their session).

Since Mono was first developed for Linux the LAMP (Linux Apache MySQL PHP) stack immediately came to mind. As I thought about it I considered the fate of MySQL being included in the Oracle/Sun acquisition/merger. Additionally, I’ve always been more interested in PostgreSQL than MySQL (I’ve never really used either, but I’ve installed both at one time or another). So I tried to think of an acronym. Initially I considered LAMP 2.0, but that didn’t seem accurate since it would indicate a new release or an update, this is just a different stack.

Then after a few minutes in the shower (my second favorite place to think) the acronym LAMP.NET came to me.

I’ve already confirmed via Google that this is possible, including using a System.Data.Linq implementation for Mono. Now, I’ve just got to put together a virtual machine with the integrated pieces of the stack.

Because someone will mention it, yes I considered Oracle since that is the database of choice where I’ll be giving my presentation. I may still use Oracle, but I just can’t see much response to a presentation addressing LAMO.NET ;).

Mono Project: I had no idea

I usually prefer to blog about my own ideas and the learning process with new technologies. But when I read this article on InfoWorld I had to write about it.

What’s Mono?

Mono is an open source implementation of Microsoft’s .NET Framework. The big difference between Mono and .NET is that Mono runs on Linux, Max AND Windows. The Mono Project also has an implementation of Silverlight, named Moonlight, which allows Silverlight projects to run on Linux operating systems.

So what?

Well I always thought Mono was kinda cool, but I’m strictly an ASP.NET developer everything is on the web and all of my clients run in a Windows environment. So there was never any reason for me to do anything than admire what Mono could do from afar. Something cool, but not worth the time for me.

But today I found out that using Mono opens you up to the Nintindo Wii and iPhone platforms! How? Because Mono offers static compilation – the ability to generate native code instead of IL. So you end up with the same result as if you were coding in C++ or Objective-C.

I’ve only just read the article, so I may be jumping the gun here. I’m sure there are downsides, but I would really like to write an app for my iPod Touch. But I don’t plan on learning Objective-C anytime soon, or ever. But if I could do this just by leveraging my knowledge of C# into the Mono framework and the technology stack of the iPhone, then you may be seeing a post about it sometime this year.

Anyway, if any of you are as excited about this as I am and get a head start on me, I’d love to hear about it from you.