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Reputation: 4644

Which Language to target on Ubuntu?

I'm a c# programmer by trade and looking to move my wares over to Ubuntu as a business concern. I have some experience of Python and like it a lot. My question is, as a developer which would be the best language to use when targeting ubuntu Mono c# or python as a commercial concern.

please note that I am not interested in the technical aspects but strictly the commercials of where Ubuntu is heading, I see that there is a lot of work done within using Python and thinking that maybe with the whole Mono issue of who "might" purchase them.

Upvotes: 2

Views: 319

Answers (2)

bobince
bobince

Reputation: 536339

Both Python and Mono are installed by default on recent Ubuntu, and will likely continue to be for the foreseeable future.

Mono is removable since it is currently only used by a few desktop apps. Python is not reasonably removable as a lot of core scripts and GNOME tools depend on it. (The same is true of Perl.)

The popularity contest shows Python to be installed somewhat more often than Mono but both are widespread:

21    python-minimal  1584305 182870 1381149 20211    75 (Matthias Klose)   
577   mono-gac        1403534  25795 1323328 54159   252 (Debian Mono Group)

As for commercial potential, it's difficult to say without any idea what sector you might be working in. If you are targeting servers, especially running older versions of Ubuntu, Mono will be less widespread. If you are selling simple consumer desktop apps... well, it has yet to be demonstrated that there is really a market for this!

Upvotes: 4

Peter Lillevold
Peter Lillevold

Reputation: 33910

I cannot say much about the market for Ubuntu. And since business is your primary concern, the programming language is, as you say yourself, secondary. I would say that in any business, choose the language and tools that solves the business problem most effectively. When release comes do your end users really care?

That said, if you can do it with Mono/C# I would encourage you to do so since you already have C# and .Net experience. But knowing a second language and development environment will only make you stronger.

Upvotes: 2

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