[Mono-devel-list] Can I use Microsoft's DLL's on the Win32 platform?

[Pete Gonzalez]

Mike Shaver wrote:
> No, it means "run on Mono".  Mono supports Win32 quite well, as you've
> already reported in this thread.  It doesn't mean "support every part
> of .NET on Windows", though, as well it should not.  The COM interop
> stuff is poorly specified, and chasing it would be a WINE-like
> endeavour into many ratholes and non-portable architectural decisions.

Thanks for the explanations; I think this is what I was needing to hear.  I 
can see that COM is a very complex (and probably stillborn) technology, and 
in fact even Microsoft's COM interop has many known bugs.  But I think 
trying to reimplement the entire canon of Microsoft DLL's may also be a 
"WINE-like" endeavor, especially if people are already giving up on Windows 
Forms in favor of Gtk#.  I guess my conclusion is that non-trivial Visual 
Studio projects will not run on Mono for a long time, unless they are 
specifically engineered from for that, and doing so means giving up many 
nice things like Office automation, 3rd party libraries, obscure Microsoft 
assemblies, etc.

Maybe this is why Microsoft is so unconcerned about Mono/DotGNU as a 
threat?  Maybe their reliance on COM was a conscious business strategy?  :-)

Cheers,
-Pete