The Code Project, a virtual community of 2.3 million Visual Studio developers worldwide, has announced the winners of the first-ever "Race to Linux," sponsored by Mainsoft Corporation and IBM. The Race to Linux challenged developers to port three of Microsoft's open-source ASP.NET starter kits from Windows to Linux using their cross-platform tool of choice (e.g., Mono, Grasshopper from Mainsoft, PHP, or Macromedia). More than 200 developers registered for the competition.
  
The winners are:
 •    Brian Hendrickson, president and lead developer of Oregon-based Megapump, Inc. Hendrickson used PHP and PostgreSQL to rewrite Microsoft's Issue Tracker Starter Kit and deploy it on Linux.
•    Abishek Bellamkonda, an Australian software developer and consultant, who used Grasshopper, a freely available plug-in to the Visual Studio .NET IDE, and SQL Server 2000 to port the Time Tracker Starter Kit and Reports Tracker Starter Kit to Tomcat to run on Linux.
•    Juan Ignacio de Paula, a software developer from Uruguay, used Mono and Firebird to port Microsoft's open source Time Tracker Starter Kit and Reports Tracker Starter Kit to Linux.

The winners of each race were the first to submit ASP.NET starter kits that run on Linux. Successful submissions were visually identical to the original ASP.NET starter kits, and could be used to execute a series of functionalities specific to each application.
 
The Code Project used an IBM eServer xSeries machine running SuSE Linux 9 to judge the entries. Prizes were also awarded to Mark Cafazzo, a software developer based in Canada, and Hector Armando Rodríguez Esparza, the owner of a Mexico-based Web solutions firm, for their outstanding Grasshopper submissions.

"We're very pleased with the outcome of the race," said Chris Maunder, leader of The Code Project. "The winners demonstrated that, contrary to popular belief, porting ASP.NET applications to run on Linux isn't only possible, it can be done quickly and, in some cases, relatively easily."

Reactions from race participants varied. "I found the migrations to be relatively easy," said Bellamkonda, who used Mainsoft's Grasshopper to port two of the starter kits to Linux. "I admit I had a few hiccups, but for the most part, Grasshopper did the work for me." Bellamkonda estimates needing less than four hours to migrate both the Time Tracker and Reports Tracker starter kits to run on Linux. "It was almost instant!"

"Congratulations to the Mono team for making .NET to Linux porting so easy!" said de Paula, who used Mono for the first time during the Race to Linux. "Mono makes Linux accessible to every enthusiastic developer, and not just to Linux gurus. Besides a few exceptions, I didn't even need to touch the original ASP.NET files to deliver a 100% Linux solution!

"Porting the ASP.NET application for the Race to Linux has been quite a challenge," said Hendrickson, who implemented much of the Issue Tracker functionality in PHP using his own IDE, Code Stylist and a small, persistent PHP framework with a data access layer. "I could have submitted my entry the same day, but the contest requirements stipulated that the ported application should look nearly identical to the original." Hendrickson estimates he spent 23 hours to port the application to run on Linux.

Mainsoft, which launched a Linux for Visual Studio .NET developers program (http://dev.mainsoft.com) this summer, reports an increasing demand for its cross-platform technologies. In a recent survey, 90 percent of developers visiting Mainsoft's developer zone want to take existing .NET applications to Linux and across platforms.

"It's exciting to see how quickly Visual Studio developers can get their ASP.NET applications up and running on Linux and other Java-enabled platforms, without having to rewrite your code," said Laurence Moroney, senior architect, Mainsoft. "For individual developers and IT organizations alike, cross-platform development and porting tools like Grasshopper and Mono free you from vendor lock, and give you easy access to Linux's high scalability, security and performance."

"This is a testament to the value of having applications run across hardware and operating system platforms," said Scott Handy, Vice President of Worldwide Linux Strategy for IBM. "Migrating .NET applications with Mainsoft reduces the cost barrier for ISVs to tap into the exploding Linux server market, which is growing four times faster than the Windows server market."

About The Code Project
Founded in 1999, The Code Project is a professional online community catering to IT professionals working with Microsoft Visual Studio and .NET technologies. CodeProject.com comprises over 10,000 knowledge base articles and has more than 2,300,000 members. Amid the dizzying array of development Web sites, CodeProject.com stands apart with a continued and on-going commitment to quality, community and the empowerment of software developers.

About Mainsoft Corporation
Founded in 1993, Mainsoft Corporation, the cross-platform development company, enables businesses to develop mission-critical applications with Visual Studio software and deploy them natively on J2EET, UNIX, and Linux platforms, dramatically reducing development costs and time-to-market. The company is a first-mover in cross-platform development. Its world-class research and development team has created patented cross-platform products that solve critical problems facing independent software vendors (ISVs) and IT organizations. Many of the world's largest ISVs including Siebel, Computer Associates and IBM Rational, use Mainsoft's products to extend the productivity of Microsoft Visual Studio, deploying more than $1 billion worth of software annually on multiple operating systems. For more information, visit www.mainsoft.com.