.NET on Linux: What a Contrast

.NET in Game Development

• Unity is described as a key driver of C#/.NET adoption outside “enterprise” use, especially for developers who never touch Microsoft tooling.
• Unity is criticized for being stuck on an old Mono fork; some note ongoing work to move to a modern .NET runtime and current support for C# 9 and .NET Standard 2.x.
• IL2CPP is widely used (especially on mobile/console), improving performance and anti-cheat, but one commenter notes it can actually make modding easier due to exposed metadata.
• Alternatives like Godot with C# and Visual Studio debugging are highlighted as benefiting from Microsoft’s modern runtime and tools.

Cross-Platform GUI: MAUI, Avalonia, Uno, WPF

• Multiple comments label Microsoft’s cross-platform GUI story as weak or unstable over time.
• MAUI is the “latest” official solution but is criticized: buggy, weak for desktop, and notably missing Linux support, which some see as a symbolic slight to Linux as a first-class citizen.
• Avalonia and Uno are repeatedly recommended as de facto cross-platform UI frameworks that actually run on Linux; Avalonia is often praised as “far ahead” of MAUI.
• Some still like WPF; Avalonia XPF (WPF-on-Linux/macOS) is cited as attractive.

State of .NET and Tooling on Linux

• Consensus that .NET’s cross-platform runtime story is now strong, especially from .NET Core 3.1 onward and with .NET 8.
• VS Code with the C# Dev Kit is seen as “good enough,” but many argue JetBrains Rider provides a significantly better, more scalable C# experience on Linux and macOS.
• The Dev Kit’s licensing (free only in community-like scenarios) is viewed as a drawback.
• Some feel Microsoft deliberately limits VS Code parity to keep Visual Studio as the flagship product.

Blazor and Web Stack Positioning

• Blazor gets mixed reviews: some call it a “disaster” compared to Next.js/Remix/Svelte; others say Blazor Server is excellent in specific “HTML over the wire” scenarios where not having a separate API is valuable.
• There is concern that lack of a competitive .NET web front-end story is pushing customers toward JavaScript/TypeScript stacks, away from IIS/Windows/SQL Server.

Migration and Backward Compatibility

• Experiences migrating from ASP.NET Framework to ASP.NET Core are split: some report relatively smooth transitions except for certain libraries and WCF; others describe it as highly non-trivial, with major API changes and missing frameworks (WebForms, older OData, bundling).
• One perspective is that Microsoft “dead-ended” large legacy apps, forcing expensive rewrites and eroding trust compared to its historical backward-compatibility reputation.

WSL2, Corporate Use, and Developer Workflow

• WSL2 is praised for making Windows tolerable and enabling a good Linux-based development workflow (especially with VS Code and Docker), but several note that corporate environments often forbid WSL2 and sometimes Docker.
• Some developers prefer pure Linux for .NET due to better CLI tooling and discomfort with PowerShell.

Ecosystem, Licensing, and OSS Expectations

• Several comments argue .NET on non-Windows is primarily driven by Azure/cloud needs rather than genuine first-class desktop ambitions.
• Comparisons are drawn with Java ecosystems: free, full-featured IDEs (IntelliJ Community, Eclipse, NetBeans) vs .NET’s more commercialized tooling and gated “pro” features in the VS Code Dev Kit.
• The absence of a first-party Linux GUI in MAUI is contrasted with FOSS efforts like Avalonia/Uno, leading to claims of “second-class” treatment for Linux. Others counter that many languages (Go, Java) also lack strong official GUIs, yet do not face the same criticism.

Historical Mono Context and Nostalgia

• Several reminisce about the Mono era, when running .NET on Linux was novel and community-driven, and note that early reactions from Microsoft and some in the community were negative.
• There’s a sense that, despite current technical improvements, some community distrust and skepticism persist from that history.