Mono Used to Scale Up imeem .NET Application to Linux

WALTHAM, Mass. – Oct. 31, 2005 – imeem, a free desktop service that allows users to create personal private networks, has tapped Mono to quickly scale up its application from a simple technology demo running on .NET to an industrial strength server infrastructure to support its rapidly growing user base. The imeem development team also used Mono to develop client software that runs on both Windows and Mac OS X, two critical platforms in the consumer Internet market. Sponsored by Novell and led by Miguel de Icaza, Mono is an open source implementation of Microsoft .NET used to run rich client and Web applications on Linux, Mac OS X and Solaris. Using Mono, developers can take advantage of a complete development environment and stable APIs to build cross-platform applications by leveraging their .NET skills.

The imeem service, which combines unique database ideas with a powerful network to help consumers connect over the Internet, leveraged Mono to develop a cross-platform server infrastructure that takes advantage of the best tools from both the open source and .NET developer communities. Mono offered the imeem team a number of important benefits: much of the same code base could be used for the client and the server, code would execute in a managed space which avoids common bugs, developers had access to source code down to the kernel, and integration with native code was relatively easy.

“Six months ago, building a cross platform high-performance network server in managed, open source code would have been overly complicated,” said Dalton Caldwell, co-founder and CEO of imeem. “Today, the answer is much simpler, build your application on Mono. Not only is the technology sound, but it is run by one of the best development teams on an open source project. We are so committed to the Mono platform that we are contributing some of our original software to the project.”

Miguel de Icaza, vice president of developer platforms at Novell, said, “Companies like imeem are realizing that Mono offers powerful tools that can help streamline the commercial development process. Add that to Novell’s support and consulting services and Mono offers the professional credibility that many organizations require.”

For more information about Mono, please visit: www.mono-project.com. More information about imeem is available at www.imeem.com.

About Novell

Novell, Inc. (Nasdaq: NOVL) delivers Software for the Open Enterprise(TM). With more than 50,000 customers in 43 countries, Novell helps customers manage, simplify, secure and integrate their technology environments by leveraging best-of-breed, open standards-based software. With over 20 years of experience, Novell’s 6,000 employees, 5,000 partners and support centres around the world help customers gain control over their IT operating environment while reducing cost. More information about Novell can be found at http://www.novell.com.

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