How platform-independent is .Net?

Question

Can the .NET framework be installed on Linux, Unix, MAC etc. operating systems?

Answer 1

You should have a look at the Mono Project.

Mono is

An open source, cross-platform, implementation of C# and the CLR that is binary compatible with Microsoft.NET

Answer 2

.Net per-se, as most Microsoft sofware, is 100% plataform-dependent. It only works in Microsoft-provided enviroment (like Windows and its different flavors). Theres no official .Net for anything else (Mac, Linux, etc)

BUT...

Some plataforms do try to develop alternatives, emulators, etc, to try to run MS Software. Mono, as Nick posted, is a Linux project to support .Net code to run under Linux.

But Mono is NOT .Net. Its a different sofware, written by different people, that tries to be 100% compatible with .Net (and its actually damn awesome). But its not provided or supported by Microsoft.

And Mono, being an open-source, free sofware, is plataform-independent, as it can be ported to any plataform (currently, it already support several, not only Linux)

So, technically speaking, the correct answer would be:

.Net framework, as provided by Microsoft, is not plataform-indepedent at all. You can not install it in either Linux or Mac

But Mono, an independent, compatible .Net implementation, is supported and avaliable for install in both Linux and Mac, among several other plataforms. And you use it to run code written in .Net