Mainsoft Corp. has sweetened the interoperability pot for .NET developers who want to run applications on Linux, Unix and Java EE platforms. The company today announced Version 2.0 of its Mainsoft for Java EE, which allows developers to code in the latest Visual Studio and run the applications on Java EE platforms without rewriting code or learning new development skills.
The benefit to mid-size ISVs that have strong .NET skills is they can bring their wares from one code base to more enterprises that care to run Unix or Linux. And these developers don't need to learn Java. This helps Visual Studio establish itself solely in such ISVs. There are plenty of places where the support of both Windows and Unix continues, and that probably won't change much for years.
Previously named Visual MainWin for J2EE, the product suite received initial rave reviews from such publications as Computer Reseller News and InfoWorld. The latest version ups the ante on the previous release by introducing support for Microsoft's Visual Studio 2005 IDE, the .NET Framework 2.0, ASP.NET 2.0 controls, role-based security, and C# generics.
There's also support for Ajax, Apollo and Atlas client functionality.
According to Mainsoft, the new version springs from the company's four-year collaboration with Mono, the Novell-sponsored open-source development initiative for a multi-platform version of .NET technologies.
In announcing the release of the new version, Mainsoft pointed to several case studies from developers who had taken advantage of the 2.0 technology preview.
Mainsoft for Java EE v. 2.0 comes in three editions:
Mainsoft is offering a pragmatic approach to gaining a wide choice of deployment environments, including C/C++. The approach helps open C# developers to Java, and vice versa. It extends the utility of Visual Studio. And if provides flexibility in both runtime and design time. There's a portals-specific benefit too in that developers can attach back to portals in many environments: mainframes, Unix, Linux, and Windows.
Microsoft has been pointing to co-existence between Linux and Windows as a goal its customers are calling for. Why limit the benefits to Linux? Write once in Visual Studio, and run anywhere. Still makes sense to me.