[Mono-list] Deploying Mono GUI Applications

[Miguel de Icaza]

Hello,

> I am an experienced C# programmer under Windows, but I am rather new
> to Linux and Mono. We are looking at our options under Linux to create
> a simple GUI application around a library and driver written in C that
> accesses proprietary hardware. It looks like Mono would fit the bill,
> but I have concerns about deployment. This needs to be a
> straightforward installation for our customers. Does Mono need to be
> installed on the target machine, or can we just deploy the mono
> executable and required assemblies along with our application files? 

It is best if you deploy Mono on the target machine;

On Linux systems the traditional way of deploying the software is to
deploy the software using a package management system (Mono is available
in a number of packaged formats for different Linux distributions).

Your software would be available in the same way.

Alternatively, you might want to look into mkbundle, but we strongly
recommend that you use a standard Mono installation as it is much
simpler to debug and track down any potential problems