Selling Mono

Hi,

Numbers sell.  All the benchmarks and performance comparisons are
several years old.  Today, Mono uses generics with value types, the
compiler and garbage collector have improved.  Someone should be able
to come up with a test that puts mono in a good light.  Java may still
win so Sun might even accept a challenge.  Testing the Microsoft stuff
is not so important.  Someone should sell Mono with numbers.  It would
help developers sell their decision to use it to people that don't
care about indexers and properties.

Maybe ask an independent third party, or ask someone who has published
numbers to redo their tests.  You might suggest they use a 64 bit
architecture (I have no idea if this is faster).

I like the elegance of C#, but there is no reason why it cannot be
compared on speed, memory and required footprint.  The third is so we
can move into the phone market.  From what I have read, Mono is very
fat.  But I may be completely wrong.  Also, you could compare lines of
code to make scripting languages shine.

Since the garbage collector and JIT are under constant development, it
might not make sense to do it right now.  But, you could prepare the
tests for when the compacting collection arrives for example.
Something less than three years old need to be published with hard
numbers.  Microsoft will continue to blow Mono out of the water, so I
am sure they would not mind.

Other comparisons could include a Gtk# application versus a
Windows.Forms application.  This could have the added benefit of being
a tutorial for Gtk# newbies (like myself).  You could outline
System.Configuration versus GConf#.  If the Gnome-Keyring-Sharp is
ready, it could be show cased...

I know that I am free to contribute this stuff.  However, I don't feel
that I am enough of an expert...  Also, though I am open minded, I am
a little prejudiced.  I was lucky enough to skip Java and start with
C#.  Please help me sell Mono.  For my part, I am using it at work, to
a loud background of Java disciples heckling me.

Thanks,

Vlad

PS The SUSE VM is awesome to quickly start working.  How do you feel
about Xen?  Is it too soon?  Novell could really show off the latest
and greatest...
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