Where is the difference between Xamarin.Mac and Mono:OSX

Question

Where is the difference between Xamarin.Mac and Mono:OSX. I know Xamarin bought Mono so I thought it should be the same. But Mono:OSX seems to be free, while Xamarin.Mac costs at least 399$. So where is the difference between them both?

• Xamarin.Mac -> http://xamarin.com/mac
• Mono:OSX -> http://www.mono-project.com/Mono:OSX

Answer 1

The following is an excerpt from an article at xamarin.com (http://docs.xamarin.com/mac/guides Jan 1, 2013) which answers your question.

What are the differences between MonoMac and Xamarin.Mac?

Xamarin.Mac is built on the open source MonoMac project. Xamarin.Mac is being developed by the maintainers of MonoMac, though contributions are continuing to flow to MonoMac as well.

Xamarin.Mac has these additional features:

• A commercial license to the Mono Runtime
• Bindings to new frameworks
• Creates self-contained application bundles, without external dependencies on Mono.

These are described in detail in the following sections.

Bindings to New Frameworks

The following are new frameworks and APIs that are included in Xamarin.Mac:

• CoreBluetooth
• GameKit
• New MountainLion AppKit APIs
• SceneKit
• StoreKit
• Commercial License to the Mono Runtime

Xamarin.Mac also comes with commercial support from the Xamarin team, and the Xamarin.Mac product has a published roadmap of forthcoming features.

The Mono runtime license is a commercial license that allows developers to redistribute their Mono-based applications without being bound by the terms of the GNU LGPL v2. This allows you to publish both to the Apple App Store as well as distributing applications that embed the Mono runtime without having to provide source code or object files for end users to relink.

Creating Self-contained Application Bundles

Xamarin.Mac extends MonoMac by allowing developers to ship an application bundle that includes both their software as well as the required pieces of the Mono runtime, without requiring your users to fetch the Mono runtime on their own and install it separately on their systems.

This feature is used for AppStore deployments as well.

Answer 2

I am not from Xamarin, so below is only my own understanding,

1. Xamarin.Mac is based on Mono:OSX. It is not something that comes from middle of nowhere.
2. Xamarin.Mac provides streamlined experience of developing Mac applications, by integrating MonoDevelop, Mono core runtime, MonoMac, and probably some non-open-source addins/utilities. It is easier to use Xamarin.Mac than assembling the whole tool chain on your own.
3. Xamarin.Mac comes with support contracts. This can attract professional Mac developers, and enterprises, as they need support contracts to ensure their own products' supportability.

Anyway we can sign up the seminar and learn what it is,

http://resources.xamarin.com/intro-to-xamarin.mac.html

BTW, the statement "Xamarin bought Mono" is not that accurate. The proper terms can be found in this blog post by Miguel de Icaza,

http://tirania.org/blog/archive/2011/Jul-18.html