.net core cross platform desktop app

Question

I'd like to develop a cross platform desktop app by using .net Core. The app needs to be executed on linux, mac os, and windows. For that purpose, should i create a console app and put below lines in settings xml?

<PropertyGroup>
   <RuntimeIdentifiers>win10-x64;osx.10.12-x64;debian.8-x64</RuntimeIdentifiers>
</PropertyGroup>

Will it be sufficient? If so, should i write all platforms and separate by comma e.g.

win7-x32;win10-x64;...

If it is not the answer, how can i generate cross platform desktop app with .net Core?

Answer 1

1) Console apps in .NET core are already cross-platform.

2) For those working with a GUI, .NET core finally has a cross-platform GUI option officially supported by Microsoft called .NET MAUI

This builds on the same APIs as Xamarian Forms.

Official .NET MAUI Github Repo

Answer 2

As the other answer eludes to, .NET Core itself is cross-platform, but it doesn't offer any GUI solution. You can run console/terminal applications, as well as web applications, but not desktop applications.

As of right now, there is no official Microsoft tech that solves a multi-platform GUI. The two that I know of are Avalonia and Eto.Forms. Both have their pros and cons, and both are kinda buggy. Not in the sense that it's unusable, but in the sense that it's evolving tech, don't expect them to blow your mind right off the bat.

Guides to get you started :

• Avalonia - http://avaloniaui.net/guides/quickstart
• Eto.Forms - https://dotnetcoretutorials.com/2018/03/19/cross-platform-winforms-kinda/