.NET

One of the nice things about Linux is the ability to install apps (and dependencies) very easily using apt-get or similar. Windows users have been missing a similar tool for a long time. Never fear, the Scottish Alt.Net group have written Hornget, a tool for installing open source .NET projects.

Quite a few projects are supported, though most are of interest only to programmers. It would be nice to see a lot more user oriented tools like games and the like.

Whilst developing PowerTime, I’ve kept in mind the requirement that I need to ensure that the software can be built using only freely available tools.

Of course we will eventually provide an installer, but I like the idea that people can build the software on their own machine if they want to.

One way to make self building easier is to minimise the number of external dependencies required. To that end, everything is written in C# and only standard .NET framework libraries are used. No external libraries are required to create a functional build.