Developing .Net Application on Mac?

Question

I am .Net Developer who started using Mac OS. The only thing that I miss on this system is "VISUAL STUDIO". I don't wanna use two systems, What do you think in order to develop .Net application

Do you think that I should install Virtual box and use Visual Studio
http://zeus.cs.pacificu.edu/chadd/InstallVisualStudioOnYourMac.html

Or Just use Mono Develop? Is Mono Powerful enough to develop application that is compatible with Windows and run on Mac ?

Solution

I am purely .NET developer, but lately also developing iOS applications with using Xamarin (new name for mono libraries) and Xamarin studio (rebranded Monodevelop).

So, if I understand you correctly and you still want to develop .NET applications but just working and "live" in MacOS, the I would say that you have no chances.

Even if consider, that you can have an ability to write code (and even to have some .NET libraries to use even there) in Monodevelop, that's just incomparable, how VisualStudio is amazingly convenient for developer (especially, for native .NET one) and how many plugins it has.

So, from my point of view, there is even no talk: you must use VisualStudio in any case! Even if you use it in Remote Desktop.

UPD: Time flows and things change. Currently .NET is really spread even to Mac. Visual Studio Code been released for coding and Xamarin became available for Free since the answer was asked. However, one thing will probably never come true: I am doubting Visual Studio will ever be able to migrate from Windows. It will be rather some new product or extending of Visual Studio Code.

Comments

[SK-logic]

Mono is pretty stable and has many advanced features not available in Microsoft .NET.

[RangerRick]

I'm not trying to bash Mono unnecessarily- it is an EXCELLENT open source tool with plenty of features for advanced users. I just want to make it easy for the user to explore all possible options. Here is a decent tutorial on running microsot xp in a virtual box.

[Vikas Rana]

i think you should update your answer :)

[Agat]

@VikasRana, why? Has MS delivered VisualStudio for Mac already?!

[Vikas Rana]

we can use visual studio on mac and linux as by Official Asp.Net forum visualstudio.com/en-us/products/code-vs.aspx

[Agat]

Please, read carefully what actually VisualStudio Code is (and what it can do), as that's absolutely another product, which just looks similar. Those are completely different ones, targeting (partially) different areas as well. First one is multi-platform though.

[Vikas Rana]

thnks for info @Agat :)