[Mono-devel-list] Getting Started

[Met @ Uber]

I'm at the planning phase for a pretty big project and I'm trying to
decide on Java or C#.  I was wondering if people could help me compare
some pieces as I really don't know ANYTHING about C#.  For Java there is
a great tool called ObJectRelationalBridge (OJB), which is an
Object/Relational mapping tool that allows transparent persistence for
objects against relational databases.  Is there anything like this for
C#, that is open?  As interesting as it would be to build them, I'm not
sure if we can afford the development time on that overhead.  Also, how
functional are C# WebServices through Mono?  Are there any running
examples that I might be able to look through?  And finally, how
portable/complete are Gtk#/Qt#?

Any tips, pointers, comments, etc would be greatly appreciated.  I guess
I'm just trying to get a general handle on things before I spend massive
hours reading.

Thanks in advance,

~ Matthew