Linux vendor Novell is offering a new commercial add-in for Visual Studio that will allow software developers to test and package .NET applications for Linux without having to leave their Windows development environment. The new tools could potentially help boost the availability of third-party software for Linux.

Novell's Mono project, an open source implementation of the .NET runtime, makes it possible to run quite a bit of .NET software on the Linux platform. It opens up the door for .NET shops to expand their audience by making their programs available for deployment on Linux, but the additional effort involved in testing and packaging is an impediment in some cases. Novell's new Mono Tools for Visual Studio (MonoVS) add-in will help to lower the barriers and simplify the process.

The add-in has a number of compelling features, including support for remote debugging. Users can automatically deploy their applications to a remote Linux host and debug it using Visual Studio's interactive built-in debugger; it also has packaging tools that help users generate SUSE RPMs and virtual appliance images; finally, it integrates with SUSE Studio, Novell's nifty Web-based JeOS builder. The Mono Migration Analysis tool is also included in the bundle and is used to help developers identify non-portable APIs.

The Visual Studio add-in is relatively new and still has a few noteworthy limitations—it's primarily engineered around Novell's SUSE Linux and doesn't generate packages for other distros yet. The developers say that they plan to eventually support deployment on Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Debian-based distros like Ubuntu. Independent developers have already experimentally demonstrated how to use the new MonoVS add-in in conjunction with Ubuntu.

I discussed the new product with Novell's Miguel de Icaza and Joseph Hill, and they said that the goal is to make it easier for Windows developers to bring their .NET software to Linux without having to know a lot about the platform. For Windows developers who don't like to leave the confines of Visual Studio, such tools are needed to make Linux portability an accessible undertaking. Microsoft previously had rules against making Visual Studio add-ins that allow developers to target other platforms. These rules were recently changed, de Icaza explained, finally making it possible for Novell to offer Linux deployment solutions for the popular Windows IDE.

"With Mono Tools for Visual Studio, we are bridging the gap between Visual Studio, one of the world's leading development platforms, and Linux, one of the world's leading deployment platforms," said de Icaza in a statement. "By integrating our tools right into Visual Studio, we are enabling developers familiar with Windows and .NET to quickly bring their applications to the Linux market, and ISVs to offer their software as ready-to-run appliances."

Novell already has its own cross-platform open source development environment called MonoDevelop. I asked de Icaza if Novell is still committed to making MonoDevelop a first-class tool on Windows. He says that the new Visual Studio add-in isn't intended to replace MonoDevelop on Windows. It's primarily offered for the benefit of Windows developers who are addicted to Visual Studio and are unwilling to migrate. In the long term, he hopes that MonoDevelop will eventually rival Eclipse and Visual Studio.

MonoVS is available from the Mono website. Novell offers a personal license for $99 and an enterprise license for $249. They also have an "ultimate edition", which includes a commercial Mono license, for $2499.

Further reading