
Home Page: http://monodevelop.com
MonoDevelop is an IDE primarily designed for C#™ and other .NET™ languages. MonoDevelop enables developers to quickly write desktop and ASP.NET™ Web applications on Linux™, Windows™, and Mac OS X™. MonoDevelop makes it easy for developers to port .NET™ applications created with Visual Studio™ to Linux™ and to maintain a single code base for all platforms. It brings a clone of Microsoft™'s .NET™ API to the Linux™ desktop. It is at version 2.8. The MonoDevelop core is licensed under the LGPL™ v2, though much of the code and add-ins are licensed under the MIT/X11 license.
MonoDevelop does not contain a visual designer, so C#™ bindings to the GUI designer components of GTK+™ were created to allow for the creation of graphical user interfaces. These bindings are collectively called "GTK#" or GTK Sharp. The parts of .NET™ which are legally allowed in Mono are defined in the ECMA™ 334, which covers the C#™ specifications, and the ECMA™ 335 standard, which covers the CLI specifications. A license must be obtained from Microsoft™ to use the tools described in these two standards to create a commercial application.
Microsoft™ expanded on its ECMA™ offerings with a “Community Promise”(CP), which adds several technologies to those listed in ECMA™ 334 and 335. Some specifications include special terms, which are are noted. The CP applies to anyone who is building software and/or hardware to implement one or more of those specifications. The CP does not apply to any work that you do beyond the scope of the covered specifications.
In specified cases (such as those in which the specifications have uses that exceed those needed to achieve the interoperability needs for which the release under the CP is being made), the CP may have special terms concerning the kinds of implementations that are covered. Microsoft™ is the sole adjudicator in determining if an application conforms to the ECMA™ and CP or not, and commercial applications built using Mono may require a license from Microsoft™. It would be prudent to consult an attorney specializing in Intellectual Property Rights and contact Microsoft™ for specific information before beginning development.