Linux support in .NET MAUI

[jsuarezruiz]

Linux runs on a high diversity of devices of different form factors and possibilities.

.NET MAUI will give official support to Android, iOS, macOS and Windows. The purpose of this issue is to collect feedback to specify possible actions at the community level to review Linux support in .NET MAUI.

Linux support in Xamarin.Forms is achieved thanks to a backend using GTK Sharp 2.12.

Possible options for .NET MAUI:

• Use the Xamarin.Forms backend by updating Handlers and other changes. It could also be upgraded to GTK 3: https://github.com/GtkSharp/GtkSharp
• Reuse as much as possible from the actual GTK 2 Backend and create bindings library for GTK 4?
• Use GTK as a container, but use drawn controls: https://github.com/dotnet/GraphicsControls
• Other? (Add your feedback)

Add your feedback!. What do you think is the best option to add Linux support to .NET MAUI? What would you use it for (Raspberry PI Apps, IoT, Desktop App, etc)?

[Suriman]

Thank you very much for considering Linux support on .NET MAUI. It's something that many of us have been asking for for a long time.

My humble opinion is to use the option where Linux support is available as soon as possible. Later, in successive versions of .NET MAUI, other options could be evaluated.

[lmartinedreira]

In order to consider MAUI as our UI framework, it is very important to us to be able to reach customers that work with Linux (such as many public organizations, etc). We would mainly use it for our Desktop version of the product. Thank you for opening this path for Linux support.

[lucasfolino]

For me the target platforms I would use would be mostly personal or small apps for Raspberry PI or ChromeOS. As for desktop apps I would use it for Ubuntu mainly for a full blown OS. On a side note what would there be any sort of WSL support. I know there aren't any UI specific supported apps for WSL currently, but WSL is a Linux platform. Having something that is cross platform for WSL would be nice and work well for a developer that is using windows to developer for cross compile and test on WSL. Currently I use Electron for cross compile app that need to be desktop bound. There are some limitations when it comes to USB support and some hardware issues I have run into. Mainly Electron uses libusb which is for Linux only and still working on a way to have true cross platform support.

[trampster]

I think the fastest way to a good solution is to use GTK3 https://github.com/GtkSharp/GtkSharp. This project is what ETO.Forms uses, which I have used to target linux in the past.

It seems like they have plans to support GTK4 GtkSharp/GtkSharp#166

So contributing to that effort going forward would be the most productive way to get to GTK4 support in the future.

[SCLDGit]

Avalonia is the most solid implementation of a xaml-backed GUI running on Linux today. I'd look there for inspiration.

[trampster]

Avalonia manually draws it's controls using skia. This doesn't fit with the ethos of Xamarin.Forms/Maui which is to use native controls on each platform. This gives you a more native look and feel.

Maui currently doesn't have a Skia backend, so using SkiaSharp to do drawing would be quite an extensive exercise, all the controls would have to be drawn from the ground up using primitives.

[charlesroddie]

Maui currently doesn't have a Skia backend, so using SkiaSharp to do drawing would be quite an extensive exercise, all the controls would have to be drawn from the ground up using primitives.

But see the great work being pursued in the linked projects https://github.com/dotnet/GraphicsControls (which depends on https://github.com/dotnet/System.Graphics). Extensive exercise yes, but actually extremely efficient since it's done once for all platforms, and would therefore benefit from combined effort, usage, and contributions.

Even without linux many people are going to want to use this library as soon as it's ready, since the demand for platform-independent rendering is much greater than the demand for platform-specific rendering. Then linux comes for free.

[ADD-Eugenio-Lopez]

Linux is an important platform among our customers, we believe that including MAUI support for Linux would save a lot of time and effort in the development of cross-platform applications.

[ZeProgFactory]

Our main target will be Raspbian. Running typically, on Raspberry Pi 4.

[knuxbbs]

Linux is an important platform among our customers, we believe that including MAUI support for Linux would save a lot of time and effort in the development of cross-platform applications.

Your company can hire a professional to only focus on that? Or sponsor an open-source maintainer?

[chunky]

I'm the lead developer on a bunch of stuff at my company that runs on multiple platforms. It's modeling & simulation that has resource-intensive native/local-desktop components. Several of the underlying simulations are command-line dotnetcore/.NET5, with a GUI harness around.

I personally do 95% of my development on Linux, hopping to Windows and Mac mostly to debug platform-specific things that come up. I have users on all three platforms. For me, when looking at creating a new GUI, I need it to have a good Linux development path with deployment options to other OSs. Currently that usually ends up meaning Java.

The GUI options drive architecture decisions; fully supported Linux+Win+Mac GUI in .NET would be a preferred option that opens lots of doors. Non-first-party support for my primary development platforms largely takes it off the table.

I have a preference for things that "look native", but in this day and age, virtually nothing has a consistent "native" look or would even know what an HIG is. Truly clean integration with a decent 3d pipeline [eg an openGL panel] would help a lot but isn't a deal-breaker.

To the question as posed: I don't know about implementation of the GUI framework; only that it should exist, perform adequately, and be receive reliable support+maintenance. Everything else is frosting.

[atrauzzi]

I think GTK is favourable to target, preferrably GTK4 as it's right around the corner. Ubuntu and ChromeOS would be the two platforms I'd like to see things working on. I'll echo most of the sentiment from @chunky.

If projects support packaging in any kind of way, Ubuntu Snaps would be a nice target to have.