[Mono-list] Mono 2.6 for Ubuntu

[B.R.]

On Mon, Jan 11, 2010 at 1:11 AM, daniel <trampster at gmail.com> wrote:

> Why is there no official support for ubuntu.
>
> I mean it is the largest desktop linux distribution.
>
> You support Windows which lets face it not all that many people use
> mono on windows, and why would they when .net runs on windows. Even mono
> develop uses the .net runtime on windows. And yet you have support for
> windows from day one.
>
> However if I want the latest mono on ubuntu I have to wait for the next
> version of the operating system to be released to get it.
>
> Do I have to wait for microsoft to release window 8 to get mono 2.6? no
> so why should I have to wait for it on ubuntu 10.04 to get it?
>
> End of rant.


It's not really up to Novell here, it's up to the Debian/Ubuntu maintainers
to decide when new versions get supported. Part of the reason for this is
that Debian, and by extension Ubuntu, have very specific policies on how
things should be packaged (the Debian Free Software Guidelines are very
strict, and the Mono project does violate them in a few places), and Novell
simply haven't the resources to invest in hiring someone specifically to do
Debian (and by extension Ubuntu) packaging, so it's left up to the
maintainers who do a pretty good job with the time and resources they have.
The reason binaries are shipped for Windows with every release is because
there's no package specification to follow, so the binary packages are easy
to build (build the libs, put them in the right places, package them up in
an installer and you're good to go).

As far as what Ubuntu ships, Ubuntu isn't going to get a Mono later than
2.4.3 until Lucid+1 at least, because Lucid is going to be a LTS release,
and will ship with 2.4.3, Mono's stable, long-term support branch. Debian
sid may already have 2.6 (I'm not 100% sure on this, don't have a box to
check on), and it should also have MonoDevelop 2.2.

If you want the packages now, you could always take the Debian packaging
setup for 2.4.x and try and update it to build the newer packages, or you
could build Mono from source without packages yourself if you want a newer
version, though I recommend you read the page on Parallel Mono
Environments<http://www.mono-project.com/Parallel_Mono_Environments>before
you do that.

--B.R.
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