.NET is merely one of the implementations of the ISO/IEC 23271:2006 standard (http://www.iso.org/iso/catalogue_detail.htm?csnumber=42927 http://www.iso.org/iso/

.NET is merely one of the implementations of the ISO/IEC 23271:2006 standard (http://www.iso.org/iso/catalogue_detail.htm?csnumber=42927 http://www.iso.org/iso/catalogue_detail.htm?csnumber=42927) Mono is also an implementation of that standard, a cross platform one, and open sourc-ish (they do some dual licensing stuff)