[Mono-list] Has Mono delivered?

[Dave Murphy]

I came across this quote from Miguel:

"One of the reasons that we developed Mono was because we wanted to
have better tools to develop software" – Miguel de Icaza

...and I was wondering: does Mono really provide a better environment
for developers?

I don't want to get into a debate about language or framework
features, but instead focus on the experience. To me there's a lot of
potential being missed - the emphasis still seems to be on using
'standard' build/config tools (make, autotools etc.) - which
complicate cross-platform development - and reliance on the
distributions for packaging and satisfying dependencies.

Are enough "better tools" being provided, or is there more that can be done?

A specific example that may help you see where I'm coming from is
rubygems. Once you've got ruby (and rubygems) you can get any other
(published) library or module. The same holds true with PEAR for PHP
and CPAN for Perl. Is there an equivalent for Mono? Should/could there
be?

It's been awhile since I focussed on Mono, so I'm hoping I'll be
inundated with responses pointing me in the right direction.

Cheers,
--
Dave Murphy (Schwuk)
http://schwuk.com