The Mono website has just announced the release of Mono 2.8 which includes a number of updates important to anyone looking to run .NET on non-Windows platforms.

The key new feature is that the C# compiler is feature complete for C# 4.0 which means Mono has caught up with the Microsoft implementation. Now you can write the same C# code for Visual Studio or Mono.

Not as visible a change but just as important, Mono now uses a Generational Garbage Collector which offers better performanc but more importantly predictable CPU use - i.e. no more pauses while the GC hogs the processor. The  GGC is able to repack the contents of memory and helps reduce heap fragmentation by moving data around when possible.

New frameworks supported include:

• ASP.NET 4.0
• Parallel Framework: including PLINQ
• System.XAML
• System.Dynamic
• Managed Extensibility Framework
• ASP.NET MVC 2
• System.Data.Services.Client (OData client framework)
• WCF Routing
• .NET 4.0's CodeContracts

LLVM support has graduated to stable and there are lots of claimed performance improvements in every area of implementation. Also new is Version 2.0 of the embedding API which allows you to host Mono in your own application for scripting purposes. Mono also no longer used GLIB - which is great unless your application also uses GLIB.

For the full details, check our detailed Mono 2.8 Release Notes

Mono 2.8 is looking toward the full Mono 3.0 release which will be the next fully supported version. Users wanting a stable platform rather than the latest are advised to use Mono 2.6.

Version 2.8 is available for download for Windows, Mac OS X, openSUSE, Novell Linux Enterprise Desktop and Server, Red Hat Enterprise Linux and CentOS

Further reading

MonoDroid - .NET for Android

Mono gets UI support

 

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