A fast-paced, hands-on guide to Mono, the open-source implementation of Microsofts .NET Framework. The first English-language book to cover Mono 1.0—the first major Mono release. Covers the basics of developing robust Mono and .NET applications in a Linux environment. For Windows—and Linux-based .NET programmers. Includes a foreword by Miguel de Icaza, Ximians founder and the leader of the Mono project. Mono is an open-source implementation of the infrastructure upon which Microsofts .NET Framework is build. Providing a compatible option with all of the technical features of .NET without the restrictive licensing and prohibitive costs that Microsoft imposes, the Mono project was initiated and co-financed by Ximian Corporation for the development of an open-source version of .NET Framework for Linux/Unix and Windows platforms (Mac OS X support will be added). Mono will allow cross-platform programming and operating of .NET compatible applications. Experts see the presence of a Unix-compatible version as decisive for the success of .NET. Mono Kick Start is a practical introduction to Mono and .NET compatible application programming with Mono. After a classically structured crash-course on the C# language and Monos own compiler, the authors reach down deeper to subjects like threads, network programming, security, database interaction, XML, and more. A comprehensive practical section shows you how to set-up Web applications with Mono, how GUIs can be programmed using GTK, and how applications written with .NET can be operated in the Mono framework. Ewald Geschwinde and Hans-Jüergen Schöenig are the founding partners of Cybertec Geschwinde and Schöenig, and Austrian company that provides commercial PostgreSQL support, training, tuning, and remote administration for international clients. Geschwinde and Schöenig have used Mono extensively to develop high-end applications.