Fredrick P. Lackey wrote:
Where I am at the moment is a crossroads. I own a company focused on rapid development on a Microsoft platform (essentially, we build components to simplify complex tasks for developers working on a M$ system). Unfortunately, I'm getting pretty sick of the OS and M$ as a whole. Their systems are becoming increasingly bloated and complex, yet the benefit they provide hasn't changed much in many years. Unfortunately, again, Microsoft technologies pay the bills.
So, in short, I would like to be able to create a development environment that would allow me to produce applications on a Linux platform using the skills that I already have (or with as little of a learning curve as possible) while still being able to maintain and develop code geared towards a Microsoft platform. Additionally, I would really like to NOT spend a butt load of money purchasing additional software for my new Linux box since most of my decisions will be based out of pure ignorance. Not that I want something for nothing, but I would like to be able to make knowledgeable decisions before I do invest any real money.
Sorry not to answer your main questions, but some ideas on this ... We use gcc, wxWindows and mingw. Not sure how much you _need_ .NET but we migrated our (fairly complex) app from Visual C++/MFC to wxWindows and it was definitely worth it. Also we can use gcc to cross-compile from Linux for Windows, so basically although our software is currently used exclusively on Windows, I can develop it all on Linux (obviously some testing to be done on Windows as well, but basically it works). And it's all free, open-source software. I'd recommend checking it out.
David