.Net development platform will be able to be installed with a single command on Ubuntu 22.04 host and container images As Canonical announced in its blog. .Net was, together with the integrated development environment Visual Studio Code, one of Microsoft's first contributions to the world of open source after it changed its attitude towards this type of license under the command of Satya Nadella.
Far from the conspiracy theories promoted by a certain part of the community, but also from the innocence of believing that it is a gesture of generosity, Microsoft's intention is simply not to lose more programmers at the hands of Google, Amazon or Facebook products who have chosen to make their development of programming languages and tools open source.
The agreement
The move also makes sense for Canonical. It is not only one of the Linux distributions preferred by professional programmers, it also consolidates it in the corporate sphere since the agreement with Microsoft includes being able to provide support for .Net as well as obtaining updates and security patches as soon as they are released.
Interestingly, the installation is done from the traditional package manager in DEB format instead of doing it in Snap. Will we be on the eve of one of Shuttleworth's traditional change of ideas or will it be a requirement from Microsoft so that Debian and derived distributions can also install it?
Anyway, kos .NET 6 users and developers using Ubuntu 22.04 they can now install the .NET 6 packages with a simple command. If you prefer, they also have ultra-small, pre-built, optimized container images out of the box.
As we said earlier, it's not about taking .NET code and packaging it for Ubuntu like it's already done with other distributions. Microsoft is actively involved in the entire process.
Richard Lander, Program Manager for .Net explains it this way:
Working with Canonical has allowed us to simultaneously offer ease of use and improved security to .NET developers. The project benefits from Canonical's leadership in the Linux ecosystem and Microsoft's deep experience in development tools and platforms. The result is a combination of DEB packages and container images that will benefit both community developers and large enterprise customers through open source.
For Canonical who spoke was its Product Director, Valentin Viennot:
Ubuntu now has a story from start to finish, from development to production, with container images supported by ultra-networks, starting with the .NET platform. We think this is a great improvement for both of our communities; collaboration with the .NET team at Microsoft has allowed us to go further.
Updates
From Canonical they clarified the subject of the different dates of updates of the extended versions of Ubuntu and .Net. The .NET LTS is released in November of odd-numbered years, and the Ubuntu LTS is released in April of the following even-numbered year. According to them, this guarantees that users will always have the most current version of .Net on each LTS
What is the .Net development platform
It is a set of technologies for the development of web applications and services independently of the operating system.
How to install it on Ubuntu
Installation of the entire environment
sudo apt update && sudo apt install dotnet6
Installation of tools to program or run applications.
sudo apt install dotnet-sdk-6.0
sudo apt install dotnet-runtime-6.O
sudo apt install aspnetcore-runtime-6.0
It is also possible to download OCI images (which follow the standard of the Open Container Initiative)
These images are made up of only the strict set of packages and files required at runtime. According to Canonical, this process has shaved off 100MB, delivering the smallest Ubuntu-based OCI image ever released at less than 6MB (compressed).
All download links can be found at this page.