What does HackerNews think of maui-linux?

.NET MAUI is the .NET Multi-platform App UI, a framework for building native device applications spanning mobile, tablet, and desktop.

Language: C#

While this is the quite endorsed by the community: https://github.com/dotnet/maui/discussions/339

I think the fundamental issue is that desktop Linux is way too fragmented. Not only just GTK2/3 and Qt but you have GNOME, KDE, XFCE, Cinnamon and then you have X11, Xorg, Wayland...

To be honest, all those craps are why desktop Linux never took off. I'm very safe to say MAUI for Linux will eventually renders components off its own using framebuffer and hardware acceleration APIs such as OpenGL or Vulkan just because of the market fragmentations...

If desktop Linux truly wants to get the attention, it will need to unify. Fixing dependency hell using Flatpak is the right direction.

There is an existing old fork of MAUI for Linux that uses GTK: https://github.com/jsuarezruiz/maui-linux

There's at least one open source community project/fork trying to build a Linux backend (via GtkSharp in this case): https://github.com/jsuarezruiz/maui-linux
> software developers who have traditionally always relied on microsoft tech stack will have to look around at alternatives.

Not necessarily. There will be Windows Subsystem for Linux, and Xamarin/MAUI proves that multiple targets with a .net codebase are very possible (desktop win/mac, ios, android). Xamarin/Maui and .net are all OSS.

A MS supported target for linux via Maui is being discussed; and one of the MAUI developers already has a repo to support linux as a target that may possibly become an official branch. https://github.com/jsuarezruiz/maui-linux

There is also the .net Community. Uno Platform (FOSS) & Avalonia (FOSS) are both .net based and target Linux and much more. The code is similar to programming for Xamarin/Maui, you can share most of the core code of your app between these targets.

For Gaming: Unity and Monogame are OSS, Unity and Unity's editor is on Linux. MonoGame (OSS) (stardew valley) targets linux. Stride (3rd party engine) is also .net and targets Linux. Cryengine is also usable from .net.

And last but not least: Godot can officially be programmed using .net.

I am not worried as a "windows software developer" that I would be needing to switch stacks to target Linux. I can already make games or software target Linux from .net.

- edited, clarity

AIUI, MAUI does not include Linux support. There was a third-party effort to get that going, but it's not part of MAUI proper, and it looks somewhat moribund.

https://github.com/jsuarezruiz/maui-linux