WineHQ Takes Helm of Mono Project, Ensuring Linux-Windows Compatibility
Mono was initially a project developed by Xamarin, with the core objective of providing an open-source implementation of Microsoft’s .NET framework. However, after Microsoft acquired Xamarin in 2016, the project came under Microsoft’s control.
Despite this, Microsoft did not actively pursue long-term development of the Mono project. Instead, beginning in 2019, the company only provided minor patches and bug fixes, without introducing any significant new features, leading the project to stagnate.
After several years of consideration, Microsoft has decided to let go of the project. Today, Microsoft announced the transfer of the Mono project to Wine, the well-known Linux-Windows compatibility layer project, with WineHQ now set to manage Mono’s future development.
“We are happy to announce that the WineHQ organization will be taking over as the stewards of the Mono Project upstream at wine-mono / Mono · GitLab (winehq.org). Source code in existing mono/mono and other repos will remain available, although repos may be archived,” reads the announces.
Microsoft’s decision to transfer the project to Wine is well-founded, as Wine, being the most renowned Linux-Windows compatibility layer, has long relied on Mono. Therefore, WineHQ is both capable and motivated to continue the development of Mono.
The transfer has already been completed as of this announcement. Users and developers can now view the project and its source code on WineHQ’s GitLab. Meanwhile, Microsoft’s Mono repository and other source code on GitHub will be archived, with binary files expected to remain available for four years.
