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Aside from ASP.net where needed, I just don't see where Mono does anything that Python/wxPython can't.

For Python in particular? Speed:

http://shootout.alioth.debian.org/debian/benchmark.php?test=all&lan...

Mono also permits a large cross-language, cross-platform class library that has one "major company" backing it, and is backed by an ECMA standard (which had several other large companies such as IBM and Intel providing feedback). The use of static typing also simplifies the creation of IDEs (compared to Python/Ruby, where you effectively need to embed an interpreter to do code completion as the variable types could change at any time, and could still be wrong anyway depending on the order of invocation of other methods at runtime...).

(Dynamic typing has its advantages, to be sure, but IDE support is not one of them.)

With all the FUD concerning patents, what's the point?

Which shows that you've bought into the FUD without understanding the basis.

Software patents cover everything. Do you seriously believe that Microsoft would have a patent that covers C# specifically and not Perl/Python/Ruby/etc.? With the USA patent system (which encourages wide-as-possible patents)? (And if you do believe this, what are you high on?)

Any non-trivial program (and likely many trivial programs) will violate hundreds (if not thousands) of patents whenever they execute. That is how big the patent problem is. "Hiding" from it by saying "I'm using Python/GStreamer/Dirac/Ogg/insert-technology-here" is showing lack of knowledge of the highest order -- you can't know that it's patent free until after you've had the patent lawsuit, by which time it's too late. Even if you're right and you didn't violate anyone's patents, that's several years and millions of dollars later...

Remember, people are being sued as recently as last year for generating JPEG graphics!

In short, bringing up patents is FUD, as the patent problem applies equally to everyone distributing software in the USA. The only way to avoid it is to restrict yourself to software languages, practices, and problems from 20 years ago, and even that might not be enough (I wouldn't be surprised if patents are granted for similar/nearly-identical pre-existing patents with only obvious/minor changes...).

You should also keep in mind that Microsoft isn't the only player here. There are thousands of companies filing even more patents every year, and you likely have more to fear from some random never-heard-of-before third party company than Microsoft; just look at how often Microsoft/Apple/etc. are sued by random never-heard-of-before companies...

Where I work, I am able to create full GUI apps (with native widgets) with absolutely no run-time requirements whatsoever. The entire app with everything it needs to run is in a single folder (my executable, and 6 dll's totaling 5 megabytes). I get the benefit of managed code, the maturity of the wxWidgets codebase, a totally rich GUI with native look and feel. You can create true win32 NT services, call any native dll (including win api) , or any other "windowzy" thing. Plus, there is no need to download MASSIVE VM's like Java, .NET, etc...

Mono supports the same thing via mkbundle, though I believe the results are larger than 5MB. See also: http://www.mono-project.com/Linker