Module allows developers to build .Net apps for non-Windows platforms, including Linux, Unix, and Mac OS X Novell this week unveiled Mono Tools for Visual Studio 2.0, which enables development of Microsoft .Net applications for Linux, Unix, and Mac OS X from within Microsoft’s Visual Studio IDE.Built as an add-in module for Visual Studio, Mono Tools for Visual Studio enables .Net developers to leverage existing skill sets to create applications for Linux, Unix, and Mac OS X. Version 2.0 features backing for Mac OS X and support for Mono on Windows. In turn, developers can now test and debug on Mono without the overhead of switching between operating systems.[ Also on InfoWorld: At Novell, Miguel de Icaza’s group has worked on the Moonlight project, putting Microsoft’s Silverlight rich Internet application plug-in software on non-Windows platforms. ] “It’s easier to debug against the local instance. A .Net developer can now start working on making an application Mono-compatible without having to first set up a Linux or Mac target,” said Joseph Hill, Novell product manager for Mono, in an email explaining benefits of Mono support on Windows.“With this next generation of Mono Tools for Visual Studio, Novell continues to offer customers, partners and developers the best experience in Visual Studio for targeting Linux, one of the world’s leading deployment platforms,” said Miguel de Icaza, Mono project founder and Developer Platform vice president at Novell, in a statement released by the company.Also, version 2.0 enables faster time to deployment. A new debugger engine enables developers to debug applications running on the latest versions of Mono on non-x86 hardware such as PowerPC. The newly released Visual Studio 2010 platform is supported with this release of Mono Tools for Visual Studio. Mono Tools for Visual Studio 2.0 is available at prices ranging from $99 for an individual edition to $2,499 for the Ultimate Edition, which provides a limited commercial license to redistribute Mon on Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X. Five enterprise developer licenses are included with the Ultimate edition.This article, “Novell upgrades Mono Tools for Visual Studio,” was originally published at InfoWorld.com. Follow the latest developments in business technology news and get a digest of the key stories each day in the InfoWorld Daily newsletter and on your mobile device at infoworldmobile.com. Software Development