B.1. The Platform-Independent Nature of .NET
Historically speaking, when programmers used a Microsoft development language (e.g., VB6) or Microsoft programming framework (e.g., MFC, COM, or ATL), they had to resign themselves to building software that (by-and-large) executed only on the Windows family of operating systems. Many .NET developers, accustomed to previous Microsoft development options, are frequently surprised when they learn that .NET is platform-independent. But it's true. You can create, compile, and execute .NET assemblies on operating systems other than Microsoft Windows.
Using open source .NET implementations such as Mono, your .NET applications can find happy homes on numerous operating systems, including Mac OS X, Solaris, ...
Get Pro C# 2010 and the .NET 4 Platform, Fifth Edition now with the O’Reilly learning platform.
O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.
