Today is a pretty exciting day if you’re an enterprise developer. . . Red Hat and Microsoft have announced that the two companies will be working together to bring a supported version of the .NET runtime to Red Hat’s Enterprise Linux and OpenShift 3. This offers developers more freedom and choice in how they develop their applications. Having spent a big part of my career at Microsoft and working with .NET since its inception, I’ve grown to love the strengths of the platform. But one of its main weaknesses has always been its portability beyond Windows. Now, that’s changing.
Back in December 2014, I wrote about how .NET being open sourced would open up a world of possibilities for developers. Having .NET on Linux will enable developers to build new types of applications that can merge the benefits of the OS and the runtime. But in order for those applications to be viable across the enterprise, IT business leaders will want to know that those applications are supported at all levels.
This is exactly the problem that this partnership is looking to solve. Red Hat and Microsoft will be working together to help enterprise developers and IT decision makers feel more secure in their choice to use .NET on Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
What was announced –
- Developers will be able build .NET applications and deploy them on Red Hat Enterprise Linux, OpenShift, Red Hat Enterprise Linux Atomic Host, and Red Hat Enterprise Linux OpenStack Platform.
- Red Hat and Microsoft engineers are engaged in building and certifying .NET with Red Hat technologies for enterprise use.
- Red Hat will ship Microsoft .NET certified for Red Hat environments through Red Hat Software Collections - aimed at developers.
- Red Hat will provide direct support for installation, configuration, and environmental issues related .NET and Red Hat technologies.
For .NET developers, what is important to note is that Red Hat Enterprise Linux will be the primary Linux distribution used by Microsoft to update and test .NET. Red Hat and Microsoft will be working together to validate compatibility and other technical issues, in real-time.
No matter what the deployment scenario, enterprise developers can get the benefits of .NET running on Red Hat Enterprise Linux and have the same confidence with respect to supportability that they do today when building .NET applications for Windows.
Why is .NET on Red Hat Enterprise Linux a good choice for developers? There are a number of reasons that are both technical and business related. Some developers and IT leaders might want to take advantage of technologies not available on other platforms or see potential cost savings and productivity gains combining Red Hat’s platform with the .NET runtime. But one of the benefits that we’ve already seen as a result of us working with Microsoft is the ability to use native Linux container technology with .NET.
Developers can now package and deploy their .NET applications using Docker containers on Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Red Hat Atomic or OpenShift Enterprise 3 and take advantage of the native Linux technology and the rich ecosystem of tools and developer support that already exists. Deploying .NET solutions inside containers helps developers in situations where they might need better isolation and/or coordination of different run time versions, increased server density or more streamlined continuous deployment scenarios.
As part of the larger announcement we also introduced the availability of Red Hat Enterprise Linux and OpenShift on Microsoft Azure. .NET developers may already be familiar with, and using, many of the services available on Azure. With Red Hat Enterprise Linux and OpenShift running in the same environment, developers can create complex applications, at scale, in a truly heterogeneous environment.
If you’re interested in learning more and want to see an example of how .NET applications can run on Red Hat Enterprise Linux and OpenShift Enterprise 3 you can check out this video that the Chris Morgan of the OpenShift team put together.
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This is a great example of how developers can use our .NET RPM package, inside a Docker-based container and run it across the Red Hat platform.
This is just a quick look and we plan to have more samples and starter apps available shortly. Register at Red Hat Developers- http://developers.redhat.com/ for more information and updates.
Last updated: January 17, 2023