SD Times' David Worthington this week published an excellent article contending that Microsoft's Mono framework has become more popular for Linux desktop applications than Java.

"'We have seen a real spike in Mono [application] development for the Linux desktop over the last two to three years,' said RedMonk analyst Stephen O'Grady," Worthington writes. "He cited Mono applications, including the Banshee music player, the GNOME Do desktop search tool, and the Tomboy note-taking application as examples of Mono applications that have no Java counterpart equivalent in popularity."

"Some other reasons behind Mono's primacy are that its MonoDevelop IDE is a more productive development environment than the version of Eclipse that is packaged with Debian, and that there are quality problems with Sun's 64-bit Java virtual machine, said Matt Hargett, an author and speaker on development tools and practices," Worthington adds.