[Mono-list] Stoked about what you guys are doing.

[Adam Treat]

> something sweet.  I'm redoing my business apps in VB.NET and will deploy
> them on our Wintel systems until that fateful day when mono sets my office
> F R E E  (PUN VERY MUCH INTENDED!!!).

Awesome!

> I think one thing that would greatly improve your site is a discussion
> board.  People like myself who are unfamiliar with all of the Linux talk
> need help every-now-and-again.  There are lots of places to read about your
> work but no good discussions.  I have no where to go for help/info; No one
> in town even knows what the heck .mono is even after explaining it.

We do not have a discussion board, but you are welcome to join us on irc: 
irc.gnome.org #Mono :-)

> seem dumb) What do I need to watch out for when programming in VB.NET so
> that I'm sure to be able to run those apps on Linux? Will I be able to use

Make sure you do not use any PInvoke code.  The reason is quite clear, if you 
rely upon platform specific code your app will not be portable.  Also, you 
might want to track the progress of Mono as it relates to your app.  There 
are still some pretty large holes in the class libraries and it would 
probably be beneficial to understand which of these holes relate specifically 
to your application.

> Microsoft SQL Server 2000 or will I need to switch to a specific Open
> Source Database.  Will I need to recode? Will built-in reporting be
> supported for crystal reports?  This is a heavily used part of our system.
> Who about writing to the registry? As I understand it, Linux does not have
> a counterpart to the registry.  Should I avoid relying on that feature?

Currently, for development purposes, Mono's preferred database is PostgreSQL, 
but we'll most likely include full support for a number of databases in the 
future. Not sure about crystal reports. IMHO, you should try to avoid 
interacting with the registry.

Cheers,

Adam